ABSTRACT
As an intimate neighbour rather than a permanent accession of empire Persia exerted a great influence on Ottoman Turkish culture. Many Ottoman sultans included fluency in the Persian language among their intellectual accomplishments, and the illustrated Persian manuscripts in the collections of the Topkapi Palace library bear witness to their appreciation of the exquisite art of miniature painting. The garments and textiles are conveniently supplemented by pictorial and literary secondary sources of both Persian and European origin. The nineteenth century costumes of Persia closely resembled those worn in the neighbouring country of Afghanistan. The development of women's costume during the late thirteenth and fourteenth century is sporadic and in the main dependent on representations in miniature paintings. The continued evolution of women's fashions through the fifteenth century may be traced through a series of dated miniatures painted at Tabriz, Herat and Shiraz.
