Title
Headwear (fez and turban)
Year/Period
Early 20th century
Region
Possibly Singapore
Object Type
Material
Dimension
Object size: Please refer to indivdual parts
Accession No.
2020-00001
Collection of
This is a man's headdress comprising a fez and a turban. Both headwear types have been adopted and adapted, to varying degrees, as markers of identity across Islamic Southeast Asia. The fez has sometimes been attributed as the source or model from which the songkok - recognised today as the ubiquitous, formal hat for Muslim men of the Malay world - developed. An inked stamp on the inside hatband bears the name, "Mattar Bros", located along North Bridge Road, Singapore. This probably refers to Mattar and Brothers, 724 North Bridge Road, which was the family business of Shaikh Salim bin Taha Mattar, a businessman and prominent member of both the Arab and Muslim communities in Singapore between the 1920s and 1960.
