Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses an area of historical and cultural diversity that it defies convenient and precise description. The terms indeed by which Western Europe has attempted to define this area admit to defeat as they are either too wide in meaning or simply inaccurate. An extraordinary range of costume was to be seen in which Turkish and native traditions existed, both influencing each other to mutual enrichment. As the subject so defined is vast further limits have been imposed by concentrating the treatment on women's costume of the urban centres as worn by the Muslims who formed the majority of the empire's population, and whose clothes influenced those of the Christian and Jewish minorities. Women's costume presents an evolution equally as complex and varied as that of their masculine contemporaries a fact which has been overlooked because of the lack of officially defined and recognised feminine public roles.