Nicosia The Aziz Damdelen Collection

Group photograph taken in the fields, probably in the 1950s. A man dressed in European costume is seated on a mule, and on a second mule, next to him, a village girl in a white dress tied at the waist, and a headscarf (yemeni) bordered with lace. She wears front lace shoes, without stockings. Two men stand, one on either side of the mules; they wear the traditional everyday Turkish Cypriot dress, consisting of white woven shirts and white breeches (dizlik). Around their waists they have tarabulus kuşak, and their heads are covered with a cloth (kulak çapıdı) wrapped in a different way in each case. The one on the right of the photograph holds a stick and is wearing leather top boots tied under the knees; the other wears black stockings and flat shoes.

Outdoor photograph showing Hasan Mehmet Pol on a traditional wooden village cart, loaded with sacks full of grain, which is brought to the mill. It is a three-shaft horse cart (at arabası) pulled by two mules; this type of cart was used for carrying heavy loads. After harvesting the crops, threshing and winnowing, the grain was sieved and put into sacks. The sacks were taken to the grinding mill to produce flour. In the background one can see a wooden construction, probably part of an industrial flour mill. The photograph has no date, but most probably it was taken in the 1950s.

In this scene, two men are sitting on the full sacks at the front of the cart; one of them holds the reins with both hands. He wears a white scarf wrapped around his head and falling down to the neck; also a shirt, jacket and pantaloons which stop below the knees; he is barefoot. The other man is similarly dressed but has a peaked hat on his head; he holds a whip in his right hand. There is also a boy on the back of the cart. The mules have decoration on their foreheads.

Source: Ayşe Hures.

Village: Tremetousia (Tremeşe), Mesaoria, Larnaca District.

Photograph of Hacı Mustafa Hacı Osman (1874-1958) and his wife Havva Hacı Yusuf (1878-1968). They are the grandfather and grandmother of Aziz Damdelen from his mother’s side. Most probably, the photograph was taken in the early 1950s. The couple stands in front of a wall, side by side.

Hacı Mustafa wears a Hicaz fez with a hodja type turban (hoca sarığı); Hicaz is the place where Prophet Mohammed’s tomb is found, a holy place for the Muslims, like Jerusalem, the place of the Holy Tomb, for the Christians. The addition of Hacı to their name indicates that both Mustafa and his wife had visited the holy place, wherefrom they must have brought the fez, therefore called Hicaz fez. This headdress covers most of Mustafa’s white hair; he has also a long beard and moustache. Over a white shirt, also of Hicaz provenance, he wears a western-style jacket, black with white stripes, with collar, two buttons and two pockets, one on either side; his white, hand-knitted cotton stockings are combined with thick-soled tab front shoes with a buckle.

Havva Hacı Yusuf wears a white headscarf bordered with needle lace, and a dress made of cotton fabric with flower patterns; the dress is tied with a girdle at the waist and has three-quarter length sleeves. Her long stockings, which seem to be rather wrinkled, have striped patterns, and the heelless tab front shoes are made of soft leather (postal potin). A gold necklace completes the attire.

Source: Hüseyin Hacı Mustafa.

Village: Kanli, Nicosia District.

Studio photograph taken by Fevzi Akarsu in c. 1950. It shows an old man seated on a chair between two young men, probably his sons.

The old man has a short beard and moustache, and his head is covered with a white cap (takke). His jacket is European in style, but the rest is traditional rural dress: a woven white shirt under the jacket, a white sash (kuşak) around the waist, dark pantaloons, baggy on the upper part and becoming narrower lower down, covered in the lower part by heavy leather boots. The peasant boots (çangar çizmesi), the sole of which is covered with special iron nails, are turned inside out on the upper edge, where they are fastened with strings made of goat hair.

The young men both have short hair and moustache and wear two-piece suits made of dark fabric, white shirts and black shoes. The one on the left of the photograph also wears a woollen knitted cardigan. Both rest one hand on the shoulder of the old man.

Photograph of Hasan Mustafa Hacı Damdelen Behlül (1891-1975), taken in 1950. He poses in working clothes, standing in front of a tent, and holding a cigarette in his right hand. His head is covered with a turban of the type worn by a camel driver (deveci sarığı); he wears a white linen shirt with collar and, on top of the shirt, an overshirt with the two front parts crossing above the waist (kavuşturma). He also wears the traditional black knee-breeches (kara dizlik) with a red sash around the waist, and hobnailed top boots.

Source: Mehmet Behlül.

Village: Kioneli (Gönyeli), Nicosia District.

Photograph of an agricultural scene, taken in 1950.The persons working in the field are Kemal Çiftçioğlu (born in 1923) and his wife. In the background there are hills with sparse vegetation, and in the foreground a double-wheeled iron plough with a single ploughshare, pulled by a pair of oxen under a wooden yoke. The farmer and his wife are planting cotton seeds using a funnel (Turk. huni, GC fonín and TCy foni) fixed vertically into the plough; the seeds are thrown into the funnel and, as the wheels of the plough rotate, the seeds are distributed in the furrows.

The farmer is wearing a white cotton shirt, woven on the loom with thread spun with a wooden spindle and distaff (kirmen and öreke), and grey trousers fastened with a belt at the waist. Although he is working in the sun, his head is uncovered. In his right hand he holds a long stick to guide the oxen.

His wife is standing close to the plough and holds a copper bucket (bakraç) containing the seeds with which she feeds the funnel. Her head is covered with a scarf of white patterned fabric; the ends of the kerchief are tied under the chin. She wears a long dress made of cotton flannel cloth (bazen, pazen), gathered at the waist.

Source: Hüseyin Çiftçioğlu (he donated the photograph to Aziz Damdelen).

Village: Platanissos, Karpasia, Famagusta District.

Photograph of a couple, Revan Kaçar (1918-1983) and Zalihe Kaçar (1911-1993). The photograph was taken in the interior of a house; two steps and a door are seen at the background. There is no date, but from the age of the persons – the wife is seven years older – we can presume that the photograph was taken in the late 1940s.

Revan’s hair is cut very short; he also has a moustache. He wears a loom-woven white linen shirt with collar and cuffs, black knee-breeches (kara dizlik) and a red sash around his waist (kırmızı kuşak/guşak). The attire is complemented with hand-knitted, black stockings, made with the elastic knitting design (lastik örneği çorap), and flat tab front shoes (dilli potin).

The wife, Zalihe Kaçar, stands on the left side of her husband, so close that their hands touch. Her long black hair falls in loose tresses over the shoulders on the chest, and is partly covered with a white kerchief decorated with hand-printed or painted patterns (yazma çember), the ends of which are tied under the chin. She wears a long dress made of flower-patterned fabric, and machine-sewn. Over the dress, which has a low V-neck, she wears a ready-made woollen jacket (hırka). Under the dress she wears long white pants (Karpaz donu), woven on the loom with Indian yarns; their lower part, from below the knees to the ankles, is exposed, and the edges are decorated with crochet lace jasmine patterns. The stockings are hand-knitted and colourful, the shoes black with buttons at the sides.

Source: Rukiye Kaçar.

Village: Galinoporni (Kaleburnu), Karpasia, Famagusta District.

Photograph of an agricultural scene, taken by Nidai Arabacıali in August of 1948 in Kioneli (Gönyeli). It shows the separation of the grain from the straw by a machine. In the foreground we see the sheaves of the cut wheat spread on the field; at the back is a traditional village cart, from where the sheaves are thrown into the separation machine. The machine is connected with a thick band to a tractor (Turk. patos, TCy patoz; ), which drives it. A man in the foreground (Cevdet Demirel) is holding a long-handled pitchfork (dirgen/digren; Greek dikráni) with which he throws the sheaves in the cart, on which stands another man who feeds the machine; a third person on the ground is controlling the machine. Another three people stand behind the cart; the man to the right holds a two-handled basket, while the man next to him pushes a shovel into a similar basket: presumably they are collecting the grain. All the people involved are men and wear light-coloured clothes, also headscarves and hats, to protect themselves from the summer heat. The man on the right side of the photograph holds his hat under his arm. Their clothing comprises white shirts and trousers; the person holding the pitchfork, also wears a white overcoat and motorcycle glasses. The man feeding the machine is Hasan Damdelen. The names of the other four persons are: Vardiyan Ali, Mehmet Sumburti, Haceli Zehrası’nın oğlu, Hayati.

Source of information: Hasan Dayı.

Source of the photograph: Aşkın Dervişoğluları.

Village: Kioneli (Gönyeli), Nicosia District.

Photograph of a winnowing scene, outside the village of Kioneli (Gönyeli). The photograph was taken in 1948 by Nidai Arabacıali, Kioneli (Gönyeli). In the middle distance there are trees and the village houses, and also a threshing scene, with the Keryneia mountain range in the background. Threshing, the separating of the grain from the straw, took place on the threshing floor, where the sheaves of the cut wheat were taken. Here we see two animals dragging a threshing board (Turk. düven, TCy düğen, Greek doukáni = threshing sledge); this sledge, studded with flints, was tied to the yoke of the animals, which were driven around on the threshing floor.

The main scene in the foreground is winnowing, which followed after threshing. For winnowing to begin, a favourable wind, blowing from North to South (to Mecca), was necessary; thus, winnowing started when summer breezes (meltem = off-shore breeze that blows daily for a period in summer) started; the farmers, using large forks (dirgen), tossed the grain and chaff into the air so that the chaff was blown away by the wind and the grain fell on the ground; this motion is clearly seen in the photograph as the men throw chaff and grain to the Northeast. This is the first winnowing after threshing the harman (heap of grain for threshing, mixture) on the threshing floor; a second winnowing of the grain followed, and then the grain was put through a sieve (kalbur = rimmed sieve with coarse meshes). In the photograph there are four workmen from Kioneli (Gönyeli), and their names are: Tuvzuz, Aziz Gara Hasan, Garagöz Ömer and Davulcu Mehmet Ali. All of them wear trousers and white shirts; for protection from the hot sun, their heads are covered with white scarves or hats. They also wear leather peasants’ top boots. No woman is seen in the field.

Information offered by Nebile Dayı and Hasan Dayı.

Source of the photograph: Aşkın Dervişoğluları.

Village: Kioneli (Gönyeli), Nicosia District.

Photograph of Mulla Hüseyin Avcı Ali (1872-1950); it was taken in 1948, in front of a wall built of stone in the lower part with a mudbrick superstructure. The old man stands holding a stick, and his shadow falls on the wall behind him. He wears a jacket made of English cashmere fabric over a white, loom-woven shirt with collar. His knee-breeches (kara dizlik) were also woven in the loom and then dyed black by the dyer (boyacı). Tied around the upper part of the breeches at the waist, there is a girdle of white woven cotton cloth, decorated with pompons (tomtomlu, ponponlu). All these clothes look worn. His village-style leather top boots are tied under the knee with strings made of goat hair. In this case, as in many other examples, the western-style jacket is combined with traditional dress items.

Source: Veli Avcı.

Village: Kioneli (Gönyeli), Nicosia District.