Moar Persia geekage
I've been reading about clothing in medieval Persia and apparently--because fabrics, especially the posher ones with gold weave and expensive dyes in them--were heavily taxed and regulated and everything at the time, people might often wear turbans with the makers' tax tags on. Which became status symbols, and people displayed them prominently to show off how expensive their turbans were. So, basically, even 1000 years ago, people would wear these tags on their hats the way people now wear designer logos:
Versace of Baghdad, ladies and gentlemen.
Also, those bands you see on their arms would be decorated with the names of their emir/caliph/head boss in charge, so not only did they wear designer clothing, they also had to wear a type of company badge/t-shirt when they were out and about to show their allegiance to their ruler (the alternative would probably been hanging). Which I imagine would be quite lame. Although it was still considered the highest honour to receive a pair of posh robes from a ruler--in many 1001 Nights' stories, if someone gets rewarded, they are often given gold and a pair of robes (khalat--the word our term "gala" comes from, actually). But, yeah. It's all very fascinating stuff. Nothing new under the sun, eh?
Versace of Baghdad, ladies and gentlemen.
Also, those bands you see on their arms would be decorated with the names of their emir/caliph/head boss in charge, so not only did they wear designer clothing, they also had to wear a type of company badge/t-shirt when they were out and about to show their allegiance to their ruler (the alternative would probably been hanging). Which I imagine would be quite lame. Although it was still considered the highest honour to receive a pair of posh robes from a ruler--in many 1001 Nights' stories, if someone gets rewarded, they are often given gold and a pair of robes (khalat--the word our term "gala" comes from, actually). But, yeah. It's all very fascinating stuff. Nothing new under the sun, eh?