I confess it. My interest in 16th-century Turkey is as shallow as it comes. I was drawn to the garb–so pretty! So comfy! So within my skill level! Then to the construction details–so unclear! So speculative! Then, like the purist snob I am, to the essential point–everyone is doing it…
Whenever the subject of brocade comes up, someone is bound to say, “Of course, we can’t get real brocades any more. The stuff that passes for brocade is all Jacquard.” Then everyone nods solemnly, sad at the thought that they can’t get real brocade any more, and feeling just a…
Everyone drools over Turkish silks–with good reason. And there were silks aplenty in the wardrobes of 16th-century Istanbulites, even those of modest means. But the workhorses of the Ottoman wardrobe were cotton, wool, and cotton-silk blends. Cotton • Wool • Miscellaneous • Silk • Furnishing Fabrics • Sources A note about fabric…
These color names appear in the 16th-century Istanbul estate records I analyzed. Ottoman Turkish drew color names from Persian and Arabic as well as native Turkish, so the language has several sets of duplicate color names: beyaz and ak for white, kırmızı, sürh, and al for red, sebz and yeşil for green, etc.…
The Ottoman system of measurement was based on the ell. And that’s the last simple concept you’re going to get to deal with. The Ottoman Turks never liked to make things easy when they could make them complicated, so they had not one, but three ells–the architect’s ell; the common…