In Books and Boxes, and then out in the Open: Ottoman Clothes as a Research Topic

<strong>Centre for Historical Studies School of Social Sciences</strong> a lecture on <strong>In Books and Boxes, and then out in the Open: Ottoman Clothes as a Research Topic</strong> <strong>Suraiya Faroqhi </strong> Istanbul Bilgi University <strong>31 August 2016, 3pm</strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>In the present study, we will range widely, from the sultans on their thrones to homeless people, who slept wherever they could. While urbanites of a certain standing, even if not rich, have been reasonably well studied, the clothes worn by the poor have usually remained unknown, due to the scarcity of sources. However, a set of relevant materials has recently emerged that allows us to remedy this deficiency, at least in a limited sense. We will begin by a look at the sources concerning the clothes of the elite and the well-to-do, which may be surviving garments, but also images and particularly texts. We will then focus on the lowest level of the socio-political hierarchy of the times, discussing a set of documents describing the kinds of clothing worn by slaves in the mid sixteenth century. What conclusions can we derive from this record? The slaves in question, seventy-five in number, had escaped but were recaptured, winding up in the lockup of Üsküdar, at that time a small town across the Bosporus from Istanbul. By analysing the descriptions of these people, we can focus on a hitherto little-studied issue: the clothing of the slaves, whether Muslim or Christian, differed quite substantially not only from that favoured by the elite, but also from the garments worn by 'ordinary' townsmen. The scarcity of cottons, and as a result of shirts, is surely a major factor, and so is the near-absence of the turban. Through a study of these intriguing source materials, we will use clothing as our point of entry into a world of sharp socio-political contrasts. Suraiya Faroqhi: Educated at the universities of Hamburg, Istanbul and Bloomington/Indiana, Suraiya Faroqhi has taught English (1971-72) and history at Middle East Technical University, Ankara (1972-87) and served as a professor of Ottoman Studies at the Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Munich, Federal Republic of Germany (1988-2007). After retirement from LMU she now works as a professor at the Department of History, Istanbul Bilgi University in Istanbul. In 2001-02, she was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin and in the spring of 2007, a Visiting Professor at Dartmouth College/New Hampshire. She holds an honorary doctorate from Bogaziçi University, Istanbul, and is an honorary member of the Middle East Studies Association, the Bilim Akademisi and the Türk Tarih Kurumu. In 2014 she has been awarded the "WOCMES Award for Outstanding Contributions to Middle Eastern Studies 2014" by the "International Advisory Council of the World Congress for Middle Eastern Studies (WOCMES). She has held further visiting appointments at Moscow State University, Al al-Bayt University/Jordan, the University of Minnesota, Fatih and Bogaziçi Universities/Istanbul, and the American University in Cairo. From July to November 2016 she is the Shaheed Bhagat Singh visiting professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Principal publications: Der Bektaschi-Orden in Anatolien (vom späten fünfzehnten Jahrhundert bis 1826), Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Sonderband II (Wien: Verlag des Institutes für Orientalistik der Universität Wien, 1981); Towns and Townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia, Trade, Crafts and Food Production in an Urban Setting (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); Men of Modest Substance, House Owners and House Property in Seventeenth Century Ankara and Kayseri (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987); Pilgrims and Sultans (London: I. B. Tauris Press, 1994, reprint 2014); Kultur und Alltag im Osmanischen Reich (Munich: Verlag C.H.Beck, 1995), English translation: Subjects of the Sultans by Martin Bott, (London: I.B. Tauris, 2000); Approaching Ottoman History: an Introduction to the Sources (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999); Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches (Munich: C. H. Beck Verlag, series Beck-Wissen, 2000); English translation -- amplified and revised by the author -- by Shelley Frisch: The Ottoman Empire: A short history (Princeton N. J.: Markus Wiener, 2008);The Ottoman Empire and the World Around it, 1540s to 1774 (London: I. B. Tauris, 2004); Artisans of Empire. Crafts and Craftspeople under the Ottomans (London: I. B. Tauris, 2009); A Cultural History of the Ottomans: The imperial elite and its artefacts (London: I. B. Tauris, 2016).