Mirzai (garment) explained

A mirzai (or mirzaee) was a garment similar to a jacket with "long and loose sleeves 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.^{[1] [2]}

Name and mentions

Mirzai or mirzāi is a Hindustani language word that means a jacket.^[3] John Forbes Watson 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.^[4]

See also

• Salembaree
• Peshgeer

Notes and References

1. India . 14 . Grant . Charles James William . 375 - 421; see page 419, second para, three lines from the end. Garments for outdoor wear.....the full-sleeved waistcoat worn in winter padded with cotton is called mirzāi. .
2. Book: Watson, John Forbes. The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India. 1867. Allen. 56. en.
3. Book: Brice, Nathaniel. A Romanized Hindūstānī and English Dictionary. 2005. Asian Educational Services. 978-81-206-1951-7. en.
4. Book: Sharīf, Jaʻfar. Qanoon-e-Islam, Or, The Customs of the Mussulmans of India: Comprising a Full and Exact Account of Their Various Rites and Ceremonies from the Moment of Birth Till the Hour of Death. 1863. J. Higginbotham. en.