A mirzai (or mirzaee) was a garment similar to a jacket with "long and loose

sleeve A sleeve ( ang, slīef, a word allied to ''slip'', cf. Dutch ) is the part of a garment that covers the arm, or through which the arm passes or slips. The sleeve is a characteristic of fashion seen in almost every country and time period, acro ...

s and open cuffs". It was worn under the jacket by males in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century. The mirzai was sometimes made with cotton padding to protect the wearer from cold.

Name and mentions

Mirzai or ''mirzāi'' is a

Hindustani language Hindustani (; Devanagari: , * * * * ; Perso-Arabic: , , ) is the '' lingua franca'' of Northern and Central India and Pakistan. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standard registers, known as Hindi and Urdu. Thus, the lan ...

word that means a jacket.

John Forbes Watson John Forbes Watson (1827–1892) was a Scottish physician and writer on India. Life Born in Scotland, Watson was the son of an Aberdeenshire farmer, George Watson and his wife Jean McHardy. He was educated at the University of Aberdeen, where he ...

describes a mirzaee in his work titled ''Textile Manufactures and Costumes of the people of India'' as a garment of “respectable Mahomedans” and high ranking servants employed by Europeans, who wore the mirzai beneath an outer garment called a kuba, or quba. A ''kufcha'' was a similar garment with tight sleeves, and ''dugla'' was a term for a mirzai that was quilted.

References

Clothing South Asian culture Jackets Hindi words and phrases Urdu-language words and phrases {{India-hist-stub

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