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ONE BARBER SAID TO THE
OTHER
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In
old
Turkish yulu meant shaving, yölgüç was a razor, yölügen
a barber, yülemek to shave, and yülük a person who had
shaved. But later, if the terminology is anything to go
by, foreign influences came to dominate in the sphere of
shaving and hair dressing. Two Turkish terms for barber,
berber and perkam, derived from the Italian barbierre
and the French perruquier respectively, while kuaför for
a ladies' hairdresser comes from the French coiffieur,
and meaning shave, from the Persian teraş, to scrape or
make smooth. |
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If all
the information, documents and pictures relating to
the barbers of Istanbul from the second century AD until
the mid 20th century were to be gathered together it
would make an extraordinary historical archive, Legend
has it that the butcher Hesperos was Byzantium's first
barber thanks to his dexterity with the kuika ergaleia
(razor), which was why the city's barbers were known as
the 'drudges of Hesperos', Most Byzantine barbers set up
their stalls in churchyards, as so much of their trade
consisted of shaving the heads of monks, Their fee was
set by law at 2 dinars a head, The first barbers shops
were opened by the drudges of Hesperos and perfumers
around the churches of Haghia Sophia and Haghia Eirene.
Now we leap forward several hundred years into 16th
century Ottoman times, when the advent of coffee took
Istanbul by storm. Corners known as mostra in coffee
houses where barbers plied their trade must have been a
later development. however, because no barbers took part
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An 18th century
Turkish street barber
holding his ewer and with his other
equipment in a bag at his waist |
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in
the guild procession of 1582, of which a detailed
account survives. By the 17th century, when barbers
had become a fixture of coffee houses under the same
licence, they found themselves out in the street
whenever the authorities closed the coffee houses
down. as happened during the reign of Murad IV
(1623-1640). These unlicensed barbers either
installed themselves in Turkish baths, or pursued an
itinerant trade. |
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A 1940s barber
calling himself kuaför
after the French term coiffeur |
In
the 1630s Evliya Çelebi watched a guild parade in
which barbers dressed in silk aprons passed by in
shops constructed on decorated floats, Equipped with
basins, ewers and German razors. and joking with
their assistants, the barbers demonstrated their
skills to the crowds, Nearly a century later a
barber's shop in the guild procession of 1720 was
depicted in a beautiful miniature painting by Levni.
Registers of municipal regulations at that time tell
us that a shave and haircut cost I akçe, and provide
details regarding standards of hygiene, training
apprentices. and shaving methods.
When the Janissary Corps was abolished in 1826 the
coffee houses, most of whose proprietors were
janissaries. were closed down and the barbers who
worked there, also janissaries, found themselves out
of work |
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again until licensed barbers were allowed to resume
work the following year. Traditional Istanbul
barbers shops were known by a barber's bowl hung on
the door. The barbers wore clogs and wrap-amund
apmns, and worked with their sleeves rolled up. The
customers sat on a bench, while the apprentices held
up mirrors, fanned away fiies and performed other
similar tasks. |
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The barber began by lathering the customer's beard
in a bowl of soapy water, then sharpened his razor
on his leather strop, and resting the customer's
head on his knees shaved him. Finally he rinsed off
the soap by pouring water fmm a pan suspended from
a hook. As well as shaving these old-fashioned
barbers also extracted teeth, performed
circumcisions, and let blood by cupping and
leeching. In the second half of the 19th century
rivals appeared in the form of European-style
barber's shops |
A bridegroom's
visit to the barber was a ceremonial occasion for
his family and friends as well |
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equipped with barber's chairs and wall mirmrs,
pictures, canaries in cages and other paraphernalia.
To distinguish their fashionable establishments,
they adopted the French term perruquier. In
districts like Beyoglu, Sirkeci, Cagaoglu and
Beyazlt signs sprang up for such perruquiers
perukar in Turkish: New Perukar, New Age Perukar,
Istanbul Perukar and so on. But the couplets which
these modern barbers hung on their walls to
advertise their services revealed that traditions
die hard, as these examples show: |
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Levni's
miniature painting depicting
barbers and candle makers in the guild procession
which was part of the
festivities celebrating the circumcision
of the sons of Ahmed III in 1720 |
'Opening every morning with a prayer is our wont /
Selman Pak is our patron saint', 'What makes this
shop so popular / Is the skill of Recep of Zagra or,
'Come and get shaved, O Muslims, to be blessed / The
master barber of this shop is Haci Himmet.' Various
ballads in celebration of barbers were also hung on
the walls alongside the diverse pictures.
An
account of early 2Othcentury Istanbul barbers by
Münir Süleyman Çapanoglu describes Greek perukars
such as Tanaş, Aris and Motoş of Salonica, whose
elegant shops were frequented by fashionable
gentlemen, and which sold a range of products such
as lavender water, eau de Cologne, toilet water,
soap, moustache pads, hair dye, combs, brushes,
collars, ties, walking sticks, and umbrellas.
Visitors from the provinces would bathe in one of
the Turkish baths near their hotels, and then visit
the barber for an 'Istanbul style' shave and
haircut, before dressing up smartly to go into
town. The poorer classes went to the street barbers,
whose rhyming cry was 'A head like a cabbage, ten
para for a shave!', for what was known as a Persian
shave. Scenes like these could be seen in Istanbul
until the 1930s, before they faded into the pages of
history. |
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Source: Skylife 04/02 |
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Necdet Sakaoğlu&Cengiz Kahraman |
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