Muslim Weddings:

Muslim wedding customs around the world

Traditional Muslim weddings are always events of a lifetime, with every friend and distant relative attending, lavish costumes often adorned with gold or silver jewelry, and precise Islamic religious rituals to be followed.

Still, people are people, and each culture tends to evolve its own ways of celebrating. So a Muslim wedding in Egypt might look one way, while a Muslim wedding in Africa or India might follow completely different customs. Sure, there will be certain core religious traditions that are constant, but beyond that each culture may have very different Muslm wedding traditions.

I began investigating this when I was getting ready to get married in 1998. I had grown up mostly in the United States and I didn't want the typical Western-style wedding with black suit and white gown, best man and bridesmaids, the wedding march, children bearing rings, etc. All of that has nothing to do with our Islamic history and traidtions. I wanted something traditionally Islamic, whether from my own Egyptian culture or any other. So I began researching traditional Muslim wedding customs to see how we Muslims have been doing weddings around the world for 1,400 years.

The photo essays below are the result. Enjoy!

- Wael Abdelgawad

Would you like to share the wedding customs of your country, city, or even just your family traditions? This page is intended to be a celebration of the various local customs with which people have embellished their wedding day. If you'd like to share your customs, stories or photos with us, send your email to:

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Three Days of a Traditional Indian Muslim Wedding - a good description with a dozen full-color photographs.

Indian Muslim Weddings

Why Emirati Weddings are Getting Less Lavish - reprinted from the BBC online, this article discusses the economizing of weddings that is taking place in the United Arab Emirates.

Philippine Muslim (Tausug) Marriages
on Jolo Island - an excellent five-part photo essay by Dr. Thomas Kiefer of Harvard University. Plenty of great photos of this little-known culture.

Muslim Bedouin Weddings: A Riot of Color and Music - the bedouin wedding reflects the ancient Arab concept of marriage.

Kashmiri Muslim Weddings - a description of the Kashmiri wedding. Includes a nice photo of a Kashmiri bride and groom.

Weddings of the Rashaayda Bedouins of Sudan - includes a detailed description and photo of traditional men's and women's sword dancing.

Moroccan Weddings - a photo essay on Moroccan and Berber weddings.

"The Money Hat" - a Traditional Palestinian Wedding Head-Dress

Traditional Palestinian Wedding Dresses

A Muslim Wedding in Harar, Ethiopia: Harar is the only walled city in Ethiopia. It is a historically important Muslim city.

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Muslim Weddings:

Muslim wedding customs around the world

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