Hat

Brimless oval caps are worn by Muslim men throughout Indonesia. Most commonly made of black velvet, these caps are worn both on formal occasions and in everyday life. A white cap may symbolize that the wearer has completed the haj (pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad). Early European accounts describe the Bugis people of southern Sulawesi as wearing a unique variant of this type of hat made out of intricately woven fiber. The cap shown here, with its finely worked gold thread, was probably worn by a nobleman. The repeated pattern along its side could be a word in stylized Islamic calligraphy.