It is a doubled black cord used to keep a keffiyeh in place on the wearer's head.

[3] It is traditionally worn by Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula, Iraq, Jordan, and parts of Palestine, and Syria (such as the Negev in Israel, Deir ez-Zor and Hauran in Syria, and Sinai and Sharqia in Egypt), and Ahwazi Arabs.

The use of the agal and ghutra is dated through antiquities including bas-reliefs and statues going back to ancient times.

The agal is traced in Semitic[4] and Middle Eastern civilizations and even in ancient Arabian kingdoms.

In his book Iran in the Ancient East, the archaeologist and Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld, in referring to the Susa bas-reliefs, points to the ancient agal as unique headwear of Elamites that distinguished them from other nations.