Nicosia The Aziz Damdelen Collection

Photograph of Sadiye Ali (1905-1989) and Ali Hasan Yorgancı (1906-1989), taken in the studio of Fevzi Akarsu in 1931 to commemorate the registration of their marriage (nikah). They are the same persons as in No. 031.

Not only the persons but also the background in the studio is the same as that of their wedding photograph (window with curtains, the vase with white flowers on a white table, the carpet on which the couple stands). They also have the same posture, with the young lady standing to the right of her husband with her left hand resting on his shoulder.

The groom again wears his traditional garments depicted in the wedding photograph: a white silk shirt with soft collar, his Tripoli sash (tarabulus guşak) over the black knee-breeches, and black leather elastic-sided ankle boots (lastikli konçlu potin). The only difference in his appearance compared with the other photograph, are the stockings, which here have lozenge patterns (baklava) and are tied with garters just under the knee. He has a trimmed moustache and the typical hair style with parting in the middle (horaşa).

The appearance of the bride is completely different from that of the wedding photograph, although she still wears around her neck a bendo (five-lira coin) and four red liras (of pure gold) (kırmızı (altın) lira) suspended from a red ribbon of thick silk cloth. She wears a long white silk dress with a V-neck, and long sleeves with cuffs. The dress is cut at the waist and has a double skirt; it is complemented with white stockings and white button bar shoes with low heels. Her black hair reaches just below the ears and is completely uncovered; there is a parting so that a fringe falls over the left side of her forehead. She seems to have black paint (kohl, hollá) around her eyes, but no henna on her fingers. She also wears a bracelet on the wrist of her right hand, in which she holds a bunch of flowers.

Note that during the period of British rule, Turkish Cypriots asked the Government to establish civil laws, among others the registration of marriage, divorce etc. Before that period there was only imam nikahı and wedding celebration; this meant that although they were proclaimed by the imam as husband and wife, it was easy for men to divorce; in the case of registration they had to go to the court in order to get a divorce (information from Kadir Kaba).

Source: Mehmet Yorgancı.

Village: Kiados (Çatoz), Mesaoria, Famagusta District.

Montage photograph of an old couple, probably taken around 1930. They sit side by side with their hands resting on their knees. Both have white hair and are dressed in light colours.

The wife, Fatma Hasan Selim (1875-1955), was a seamstress (terzi = dressmaker) by trade. Her traditional headscarf (yemeni) is fringed with lace. Her white dress, printed (basma) with flower patterns, is gathered and tied around the waist. The long dress reaches down to the ankles so that one can see her hand-knitted patterned stockings (bir düz bir lastik örneği – ‘one straight one elastic’ knitting pattern). She wears black bar shoes and a ring on her left hand.

The husband, Hasan Selim (1882-1948), was an important merchant selling his goods to many villages. He has a thick white moustache and bushy black eyebrows. He wears a jacket, vest and trousers of western style, made of loom-woven silk fabric (bürüncük, bürümcük = kind of crepe made of raw silk). The fabric was woven by his wife, who also sewed the suit. Under the jacket part of a watch chain appears, hanging from a buttonhole of the waistcoat. He also wears a ring on his right hand; the top of the ring is round, most probably a golden lira with Atatürk’s head depicted on it. The laced shoes are black. Selim had adopted this European-looking style of attire, following Atatürk’s reforms, which included a westernization of dress.

The photograph was donated by Afet Halil Hoca.

Village: Klavdia (Klavya), Larnaca District.

Wedding photograph of a couple taken in 1930, probably outdoors, although there is a background hanging on the wall. The man, Osman Hüdaverdi (1898-1977), is sitting on a village chair with his right leg crossed over the left. The lady, Pembe Osman Hüdaverdi (1912-1995), is standing on the left side of her husband. This is an exception, since, as a rule, Turkish Cypriot wedding photographs show the bride standing on the right side of the groom.

Osman, with short hair and a moustache with ends turning upwards, is wearing a tall Ottoman fez with a headscarf (yemeni) wound around its lower part. The scarf is decorated with carnation lace patterns (karanfil oya). Over a white shirt with thin linear motifs and collar, he wears a coat made of cashmere fabric, with a silk handkerchief in its breast pocket; this ‘modern’ coat is matched with traditional black knee-breeches (kara dizlik) and a white, woollen loom-woven sash around the waist. The black, hand-knitted stockings, which reach up to the knee, are decorated with white carnation patterns arranged in three superimposed series, each with a composition of three flowers. Black laced shoes (decorated with a band on the front) with heels made of thick sole leather, complete the attire.

The lady wears an elaborate ruffled white headdress which falls down over her shoulders and leaves exposed the front of her wavy, parted hair. She wears a calf-length loose white layered dress with scalloped hems and long loose sleeves. A flower is pinned on the right of her chest. She holds a patterned umbrella in her left hand. She wears white stockings and white satin shoes.

Photograph of a couple in wedding dress. It was taken by a well known photographer, M. Fevzi Akarsu. The background is the interior of a room with a window.

The bride is Pembe Mehmet Çırak (1887-1958). The photograph was taken in 1930, in honour of her second marriage, 15 days after the marriage of her daughter. She wears a whitish dress, with an opening in front down to the waist and closed with a series of buttons arranged in three groups of four buttons. Just below the buttons, at the waist, there is a belt of the same cloth closed with a small buckle. The front panel of the dress is of a different, lighter fabric, white with narrow vertical pleats. The skirt has broad pleats (eteg pastalı, Turk. etek = skirt, pasta = pleat, fold) and ends just below the knees. The sleeves are long and end in cuffs. The stockings are dyed black and the button bar shoes are black and white, with low heels.

The bride, at the age of 43, is a plump woman with black hair undulating on the front and with long trails falling over the shoulders. Her headdress consists of a high crown ornamented with handmade flowers of the same fabric as that of the wedding dress. At the back of the crown is attached a white veil which falls down to the elbows. The wedding attire is complemented with jewels: a ribbon with a bendo (golden coin of five pounds value, in Greek pentóliro) and smaller coins around the neck, earrings with a spherical hanging element, and a double ring on the right hand, which holds a bunch of roses. The left hand is resting on the shoulder of the bridegroom, who is standing on her left side. The fingernails are dyed with henna. Her eyes are bright, the eyebrows dark, probably painted in black; the lips are also painted, presumably dark red.

The groom is Ahmet Giritlioğlu (1882-1935); he has short-cut hair and moustache with its ends turned upwards. He wears a white striped shirt with collar and separate pieces on the shoulders. The front part with the buttons is also a separate rectangular piece with yet another narrow piece sewn on its lower part above the waist. The cuffs of the long sleeves are folded over so that one can see the lower part of the sleeves of the knitted woollen flannel garment worn underneath. There is also a second collar to be seen inside the collar of the shirt. The black, loom-woven knee-breeches are covered at the waist by a white woollen sash with black stripes. The stockings, which meet the breeches just below the knee, are knitted with dark grey yarn. His black shoes are elastic-sided (lastikli kuntura). The costume is complemented with a watch with long chain (köstekli saat); the chain (köstek) is hanging from the neck down to the knees and turns upwards to the waist sash, in which the watch is hidden.

Considering the period (1930), the groom’s attire is very traditional in contrast to the bride’s dress, which looks quite modern.

It may be noted that in almost all examples of wedding photographs in Aziz Damdelen’s collection, but also in other old wedding photographs, the bride is shown standing on the right side of the groom; on the contrary, in Greek weddings the bride stands always on the left side of the groom.

Source: Mehmet Yorgancı ailesi.

Village: Kiados (Çatoz), Mesaoria, Famagusta District.

Photograph of a lady and two young girls, one of them sitting on a village chair in the middle; on the upper part of the photograph is written the date 1928. The photograph was taken in a garden and the background is a mudbrick wall with a plant full of leaves climbing on it. A carpet was placed on the ground for the women to stand on.

The lady on the left (Melahat Hacıbulgur) wears a black two-piece dress resembling a çarşaf with the ends of the black veil, which covers the hair, drawn to the back. Over the dress she wears a jacket (ceket) with out-turned collar; the lower part of the jacket, which is made from a separate piece of cloth, is pleated. Pleats also appear on either side of the chest. The skirt of the dress reaches to a little below the knees. Her legs are covered with long white stockings, matched with black, heeled shoes decorated with buckles and held with a double buttoned strap in front. She wears a bracelet on the right wrist.

The girl sitting in the middle wears a white silken shirt, a black skirt, white stockings and black slip-on tab front shoes. Her short hair has a parting on the left and falls on her right side where it is held with a clip.

The other girl standing next to her with her right hand on the back of the chair, is wearing a dark-coloured shirt with a navy collar and a tie, also a black skirt, white stockings and black button bar shoes. Her hairstyle is similar to that of the sitting girl.

The appearance of all three women reflects the effects of the clothing reform introduced by Kemal Atatürk.

Source: Ekrem Yeşilada, Nicosia.

Photograph of Mehmet Ağa, servant of the lady Hacı Pembe Hanım. It was taken in the garden of the Foto Fevzi Akarsu studio, a home studio, in 1926/27 (information from Kadir Kaba). The bearded old man is sitting on a village chair in front of a painted background showing a field with trees at the back and some flowers in front. The edge of the rolling background can be seen on the ground. Mehmet wears a dark-coloured skullcap (takke) under a thin white cotton turban (dülbend). His shirt is also white, woven in the loom with thin cotton yarn, and has a short upright collar. From its pocket on the right side hangs the chain of his watch. The black, worn breeches (dizlik) stop below the knees. His dark, sun-tanned skinny legs are bare, as he wears no stockings under his shoddy, rawhide sandals (çarık).

Source: Nezaket Erbaş, Nicosia.

Photograph of Adem Mıstık (nickname of Mustafa) Hasan (1907-1934). It was taken in the Foto Fevzi Akarsu studio around 1926. The young man, with short hair and a thin moustache, is posing standing in front of a painted rolled background, the same as that of No. 025. His right hand is resting on the top of a low corner table decorated with a bunch of flowers. He is wearing a headdress referred to as an Arab fez (arap fesi), a white silk-cotton shirt with a double buttoned collar, and over the shirt a three-buttoned jack­et of black fabric, decorated with a carnation on the collar. This western-style jacket is matched with white baggy knee-breeches. Around his waist is a red sash and above it is tied a piece of spotted cotton textile. His colourful stockings, which reach up to the knee-breeches, are knitted with the traditional five-needle technique; the pattern consists of horizontal series of checkers/squares (box-design, kutulu; kutu = small box). He also wears black leather elastic-sided ankle boots (lastikli gonçlu potin).

The photograph was donated by Hüseyin Mıstıkoğlu.

Village: Kioneli (Gönyeli), Nicosia District.

Photograph of Hasan Mehmet Pol, taken in Ahmet Şevki’s studio in Nicosia. Ah­met Şevki was a well-known photographer who closed his shop in 1923 and emigrated to Turkey. Thus the photograph must have been taken some time before 1923. Painted decoration forms the background. The young man appears in a typical posture, standing near a corner table with his left hand resting on it. There is a flowerpot on the table and a vase with flowers on a lower shelf. Hasan has short hair and a thick moustache. He wears the Ottoman fes (fez, turk. Osmanlı durulla fes) with a white yemeni (headscarf) around it, ornamented with needle lace reproducing carnation motifs all around the edges. His gömlek (shirt) is made of a loom-woven coarse cloth, probably made of cotton and silk (idare, gc. itares = fine cotton yarn, silk-cotton fabric with warp of fine cotton yarn; see Papademetriou 1991, 125). The silk polychrome guşak (sash, turk. kuşak) around his waist was imported from Tripoli (tarab­lus turk. trablus). From the waist hangs a watch suspended from a chain. He also wears black dizlik (knee-breeches) and long çorap (stockings) that come up to the knees; the stockings are hand-knitted and decorated with a flowerpot pattern made with dyed cotton thread. The boots come up to the ankles and are provided with elastic on both sides (gonçlu potin).  

Photograph of Nazım Hasan Gambil from the village of Angastina. It was taken in Ahmet Şevki’s studio in Nicosia, not later than 1917. Nazım covered for a younger relative who had committed a murder. He was found guilty in the court and was condemned to death. He was hanged by the British authorities in 1922. It is a stylized studio photograph taken in front of artificial, painted and rolled decoration. The same flower decoration can be recognized in the background of other photographs. The man is stand­ing with his left hand resting on a corner table with a vase full of flowers on it. He looks very serious. He has short hair and a moustache with its ends turning upwards. He wears a gömlek (shirt) with a separate collar and buttons, as well as a striped tie. His two-piece dark-col­oured suit (trousers and jacket) is of western style. In the left breast pocket of the jacket is a white silk handkerchief. His black kundura (shoes, turk. kuntura) are closed with buttons at the sides. This attire has been characterized as an example of the British-Ottoman dress chaos (Ingiliz-Osmanlı kıyafet kargaşası; kıyafet = dress, general appearance; kargaşa, kargaşalık = confusion, disorder).

Photograph of a wealthy man, Ömer Hacıali. He was born on 15th May 1888 and died in 1980. The photograph was taken not later than 1917 in Ahmet Şevki’s studio. The man stands resting his left hand on a high corner table on which is a vase with roses of different colours. Ömer has short hair and a moustache. He wears a rigid Ottoman fes (fez, turk. Osmanlı durulla fes) with a yemeni (headscarf) around its lower part, decorated with lace; the pattern consists of narcissus (nergiz) flowers. His attire is traditional, composed of a silk gömlek (shirt), şalvar (heavily pleated breeches) made of blue broadcloth (çufa/ turk. çuha) and a silk multi-coloured guşak (sash, turk. kuşak) around the waist. His köstekli saat (watch) is hidden in the waist guşak (sash, kuşak) but its chain hangs down in front on the right side. The çorap (stockings), which reach up to the knees, are hand-knitted and bear the coffee cup (fincan) pattern on a white background. The front part of the black ankle boots (a shoe-like galosh with instep and leg of a differ­ent material) is covered with a light-coloured part. These boots are described as making a creaking noise (kapalı gıcırdaklı potin). In his right hand he holds a ipek mendil (silk handkerchief). The photograph was hand-coloured at a later stage; the gömlek (shirt) was painted light blue.