caftan

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A man with a caftan.

The caftan (borrowed into German at the latest in the 17th century from Turkish kaftan , from Arabic قفطان, DMG qufṭān , Persian ġaftān , garment to be worn under the armor) is a long wool or silk shirt made of a chest and back that is belted over the hips. Usually men wore the caftan to the back of their knees and women to their ankles .

The caftan is still a common item of clothing in Central Asia today . Photographs from Vienna in the 1920s show that the caftan was also worn there by immigrant Jews . The caftan was a traditional piece of clothing for the Jews throughout Eastern Europe . The caftan corresponds in form and function to the ancient Roman tunic .

Caftans worn by the Ottoman sultans now form an extraordinary collection in the Topkapi Palace . Some of them were so precious that they were given as rewards to high dignitaries and victorious generals during selected religious festivals.

Caftans were often embroidered on the front and the sleeves. As part of the general dress code in the Ottoman Empire , there was a strict hierarchy of colors, patterns, ribbons and buttons according to the rank of the person wearing the caftan.

While large patterns and subtle colors were used in the 14th century, these became smaller and stronger in the next century. In the second half of the 17th century, caftans made of fabrics with yollu  - vertical stripes with various embroidery and small patterns - were the most valuable, the so-called "selimiye" fabrics.

Most of the fabrics were made in Istanbul and Bursa , but some also came from Venice , Genoa , Persia , India and even China . Each fabric had very special properties and was named accordingly: there was velvet , felt (aba) , ribbed raw silk (bürümcük) , satin (canfes) , velor (gatma) , moiré (gezi) , brocade fabric (diba) , silk (kemha) and many others. The most commonly used colors were china blue , turkish red , purple, pişmis ayva (cooked quince) and saffron yellow.

Comparable traditional men's robes

  • Galabija , ankle-length garment worn by men in Egypt, Sudan and other Middle Eastern countries
  • Djellaba , worn by men and women in Morocco, in contrast to the galabija with a long hood
  • Derra'a , male garment in Mauritania

See also

Web links

Commons : Kaftan  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Kaftan  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi (Ed.): Türk el santaları. Turkish handicrafts. Turkish handicrafts. Arts Manuels Turcs. Istanbul Basimevi, 1969, p. 48.