BARBERING PROFESSION IN OLD ISTANBUL LIFE WITHIN VISUAL ARTS AND THE MATERIALS USED BY BARBERS

Abstract

In early period of the Ottoman Empire, the craftsman who was defined as “halik (hallak)” and “ser-teraş” and used to cut men’s hair and beard has been called berber (meaning of barber in Turkish) which derives from barbiere word, since the 16th century (Aksu, 1996:1). The word actually originates from barba (beard) in Latin. On the other hand, it passed to Turkish from Persian. Even though “perukár” was used instead of “berber” under the western influence at the beginning of the the 20th century, the use of “berber” word was completely adopted in Republic period (Anonymous, 1994:155). Main duties of the barbers who were divided into two groups as the barbers having shop, and mobile barbers were circumcision and the treatment-purpose processes such as cupping, blood letting, dentistry (Gürbüz, 2012:233), leech therapy, and preparing ointment for baldness and louse therapies and skin diseases as well as haircut and beard shaving (Koçu, 2002:49) (Işın, 2013:196). The barbers who used to provide service based on the manners and customs originating from Ahi community were using the tools and materials such as barber’s apron and towel, beard comb, barber’s mirror, razor pouch, razor and circumcision shaft. These tools and materials are among the substantial material cultural heritage of the Ottoman-Turkish cultural history. Most of such materials that came from the palace collections and public barbershops and have survived until now were made of the rarest threads, velvets and jewels. Besides, they were included in the collections of different museums. In this study, it was aimed to discuss the barbering profession which was significant in social and socio-cultural life of the Ottomans, with the examples from Turkish painting art and within the art history discipline. Furthermore, it was targeted to evaluate the materials used to perform this profession, together with their artistic features in the context of functional characteristics, form and adornment.