Turban originally a head-dress made up from a long piece of material wrapped around the head in many and varied ways. The name derives from the Persian word dulbcznd,
which later became tulband and finally turban. The head-dress is of Moslem origin, worn by men as a symbol of their profession of Mohammedanism and the turban has been widely worn since the early Middle Ages in the Orient, especially in the Indian sub-continent, in Persia, the Middle East and Turkey, where it is generally wrapped around a cap (see Indian dress and Turkish dress). The turban was introduced into fashion- able European dress in the early fifteenth century and was widely seen in decorative form from then until the early years of the sixteenth century. Padded or softly loose, it was mainly worn by women, decorated by a veil andlor attached liripipe though, at the height of the fashion, about 1440-50, men adopted it too. The turban was worn particularly in countries in central and eastern Europe, Italy and Austria for example, but it was also very popular in Switzerland and Flanders. The fashion for wearing turban head- dresses has been revived at intervals since
the sixteenth century, most notably from 1790 and in the early decades of the nine- teenth century, also from the 1920s on- wards when short hairstyles have made it a particularly suitable headeovering. All kinds of materials have been used, trimmed usually with feathers and jewels.
