By: Badi Badiozamani
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Pants and long coats– the trousers that we wear today along coats that were customary until very recently in Europe is a Persian heirloom. None of the nations of the old world except Iranians wore trousers and long tunics coming to the knee. The pants that were called in old Persian Sharval (modem Persian Shalvar) were accepted later by the Greeks with its name in the form of Saraballa, in Latin Sarabara. It was accepted by Arabs and was called Serbal and Serval, in Spanish it is called Ceroulas and in Hungary, it is called Schalwary and in Turkish Sharval.
Gloves– Xenophon in his Cyropaedia speaks of Iranians covering their hands with thick leather and their fingers in frames thereby explaining how he came to know for the first time what Iranians used in order to protect their hands against cold and frosty winds. This shows that the Greeks did not know what gloves were. Excavations in Ziwieh in Iran have produced a kind of a glove used as adornment belonging to the 7th century B.C.
*Excerpts from “Iran & America: Rekindling a Love Lost” by Badi Badiozamani