Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one VolumeWalsh, R. (Robert)
History
Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor: Series One and Series Two in one Volume
Walsh, R. (Robert)
Istanbul (Turkey) -- History; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Pictorial works
After the Fanal succeeds the district of Blachernæ, where the wall,
which runs from sea to sea, meets the harbour, and impends over it
with its lofty battlements. From hence it reaches to Eyoub, and that
singular factory is seen on the water’s edge, so peculiar to the
present state of Turkey. A distinguishing characteristic of the turban
was a small red cap, called a fez, which covered the crown, and round
which the turban was wound. When this ponderous head-dress was laid
aside by the sultan, the fez was retained, as a remnant of Orientalism,
but as its circumference was less than that of a saucer, its border
was enlarged till it reached the ears, and it became the adopted and
distinguishing covering of the head under the new regime. It was
originally manufactured at Tunis, and cost the government such immense
sums, that the sultan resolved to establish a manufactory of it at
home, and extensive edifices were erected for the purpose. A number of
African workmen were invited, and they succeeded in every thing except
the vivid colour, the preparation of which was kept a profound secret
at Tunis. At length the process was discovered by an intelligent and
enterprising Armenian; and the establishment, now complete in all its
parts, exceeds, perhaps, that of any in Europe. Nearly one thousand
females, of all persuasions, Raya as well as Turk, assemble here, and
receive the wool weighed out to them. This they knit into caps of
the prescribed form, and then return them. They are next subject to
a process of fulling, and teazel heads, to raise the knap, then to
clipping with shears, and finally pressed under a screw, till at length
the texture becomes so dense as to obliterate all trace of knitting,
and appears like the finest broad cloth. When it has attained this
state, it is dyed by the newly-discovered process, and assumes a hue
of rich dark scarlet or crimson. The altered shape of the cap is now a
cylinder with a flat top, from the centre of which a thrum of purple
silk-thread depends, encircled by a piece of crumpled white paper,
which is always suffered to remain as part of the ornament. This, which
resembles the undignified red night-cap of Europe, drawn down about
the ears, is the regulation cap, which the sultan presented to all his
subjects as the first reformation in Oriental dress, and which he wore
himself as an example to others: but it is a miserable substitute for
his splendid turban. The demand for it, however, is so great, that
180,000 are here annually manufactured, and sent to all parts of the
empire. They impress it with the sultan’s cipher, and thus designate it
as of imperial manufacture.
[Illustration: W. H. Leitch. G. Presbury.
MAUSOLEUM OF SULTAN MAHOMED AND HIS FAMILY, BRUSA.
ASIA MINOR.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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