Figure 1.--This Magic Latern slide shows a group of Palestinian Arab children in Bethleaham, we think during the 1890s. This was during the Ottoman era. Presumably they were both Arab Christain and Muslim children. Many wear garments that had been worn in the Middlke East for centuries. In recent years, the populatiion of Christian Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza has significantly declined.

We do not have a lot of chromological information on Palestinian children's clothing until the late-19th century until the late-19th century. We have a history page with chronological inforamtion, but information and images on the children is a relatively recent development and primarily due to photography reaching the Middle East. This meant that the images begin with the final decadeds of the Ottoman Empire. Most of the images are of boys. Many boys wore fezes. We see the children wearing long robes. We are not sure why the children wore under these robes. Sone seen to be wearing blousde-like garmenrs, ee are not dure how long. These garments seem to have been the same wi=orn in the regiions for centuries. Sone boys see to have worn pants of some descriptionm like knickers. We note a few boys wearing Western-style jackets. One boy wears a complete suit. Jewish children probably dressed similarly, but the Zionist immogrants from Europe would have worn Western clothes. The british seized Palestine at the ebd oif World war I (1918). We begin to see boys wea ring Western clothes. We think this was at first mostly Christian Arabs who orimarily loved in the towns. Western clithing gradually became commoin with the chilkdren and educated elite whicvh was the situatiin at the time of the Arab-Israeli War (1947-48). Israel became independent and the rest of Palestine annexed by Jordan and Egypt.

Created: 7:04 AM 10/6/2012
Last updated: 7:17 PM 8/25/2018