Istefan

The “crown” some women wear around the base of their hats is called istefan, from the Greek word for “diadem.”1 Except at court, istefan were decorations, not status markers; a toddler wears one in a 1574 watercolor of her, her mother, and a servant in the street.

  1. Woman in Anatolia: 9000 Years of the Anatolian Woman, p. 286.

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