Richard Pococke: Travellers’ accounts concerning Cyprus in: Excerpta Cypria Materials for a History of Cyprus translated and transcribed by Claude Delaval Cobham

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes. The following descriptions of Cypriot dress range chronologically from the late 17th to the early 19th century:     Richard Pococke anchored at Limassol, on October 28, 1738, and left the island two months later, on December 25. In Nicosia, among other information, he refers to the manufacture and export of textiles as well as of the special red dye, known as rizarin: “There is a great manufacture of cotton stuffs, particularly of very fine dimities, and also half sattins of a very coarse sort: … They send their cottons to Holland, England, Venice and Leghorn… They export yearly near a hundred thousand pound weight of raw silk, to London and Marseilles; for as it is a hard weighty silk, it is much used in making gold and silver laces, and also for sewing. At Nicosia they make fine plain cotton dimities….. They have a root of an herb called in Arabic Fuah, in Greek Lizare, and in Latin Rubia Tinctorum, which they send to Scaderoon, and by Aleppo to Diarbeck and Persia, with which they dye red, but it serves only for cottons, for which it is also used here; it is called by the English Madder, but it is doubted whether it is the Madder so well known in Holland; they export a red dye for woolen stuffs, which is falsely called by the English Vermilion, though that is known to be made of Cinnabar; whereas this is the produce of the seed of Alkermes, called by botanists  Ilex coccifer;” Furthermore, Pococke refers to the local production and export  of dyed leather, the main material used for making shoes and other articles: “They prepare a great quantity of yellow, red, and black Turkey leather; which they send to Constantinople;” (Cobham 1908,  260, 268-269). Last but not least, Pococke comments on dress: “The common people here dress much in the same manner as they do in the other islands of the Levant; but those who value themselves on being somewhat above the vulgar, dress like the Turks, but wear a red cap turned up with fur, which is the proper Greek dress, and used by those of the islands in whatever parts of the Levant they live.” (Cobham 1908, 268).