The Science of Dress in the Ottoman Empire in the Early 20th Century: Avanzade Mehmet Süleyman

Abstract

The science in which a person's character and morals are interpreted by their eyes, ears, nose, hair, teeth, and various parts is called the "science of dress." The analysis of a person's temperament and disposition based on their physical features has long existed in popular belief. This science was known to ancient Egyptian, Greek, Iranian, Sassanid, Roman and Indian cultures and various works of reference were written by ancient scholars on the subject. Katip Çelebi mentions how Hippocrates skillfully used this knowledge in diagnosing and treating patients. It is known that Plato, in seclusion, had a muralist draw a picture of those who came to chat with him to chat with their drawings. In the Islamic world, the first work on the topic was written by Imam Shafi in 768. In the Ottoman era, Bedri Dilşad presented his work "Murad-name" to Murad II, which also contained references to countenance. The first independent Turkish work on the topic was Kıyafetname penned by Akşemseddinzade Hamdullah Hamdi from 1449. In the later periods, works on clothing and general appearance, which attracted attention in the Ottoman scientific world, continued to come out until the last period of the Ottoman Empire. Avanzade Mehmet Süleyman, who lived between 1871 and 1922, wrote four works on the science of clothing towards the end of his life, in addition to works in various fields. He had two of them copyrighted while translating two other books by different scholars. Avanzade, who firstly wrote a book on feet titled Ahvali'l-kadem, actually introduces the science of foot in his work and emphasizes the need for further studies on the topic. Later, he wrote Musavver ve Mükemmel Kıyafetname, which is one hundred and ninety two pages. In this book, which he called "Musavver" because he included pictures in his work, he tried to create a diverse corpus, unlike the classical dress code literature, by talking about countries, nations, races, women, and family life. Avanzade's broad coverage of nations is also influenced by the geography knowledge of the time. Starting especially with the reign of Abdulhamid II, Ottoman scholars were attracted by countries other than the Ottoman Empire, and they tried to visit such countries and wrote notes about them. Following this trend, Avanzade not only conducted independent studies of nations and countries, but also approached clothing science from a different perspective, giving wide coverage to this topic in his book. On the other hand, he expressed his own views in the context of debates around women that existed during his lifetime trying to back up his arguments with articles written by Besim Ömer. Musavver ve Mükemmel Kıyafetname, the most comprehensive work of Avanzade Mehmet Süleyman in the science of dress, finds itself a solid place in the scientific life and thinking of the time while reflecting the spirit of the era. It is unclear who the two works Avanzade translated belonged to, having written his own copyrighted works. Avanzade, who firstly translated a work entitled Musavver ve Mükemmel İlm-i Sima Ahlak ve Tebayi-i Beşerin Simadan Keşfi in 1917, mentions how he had come across an excellent work in European languages and that he had found it useful to translate it, in the introduction he wrote at the beginning of his work. It seems that Avanzade translated this work by Johann Kaspar Lavater summarizing it, which is in fact also a summary of Musavver ve Mükemmel Kıyafetname. The other work he translated is Ulum-ı Hafiyeden İlm-i Kıyafet Sima ve Kıyafet Vasıtasıyla Keşf-i Ahlak ve Tebayi. Although the author of the work is unknown, the reference to a work by Avanzade suggests that this was not a translation from European languages. Avanzade Mehmet Süleyman brought a new perspective to the field of science of dress by performing character analysis not only by countenance, but by a different method. In this study, a detailed critique of Avanzade's works was undertaken in an attempt to uncover the aforementioned sensibilities. This is intended to be a contribution to both the science of clothing in the Ottoman Empire and the biography of Avanzade Mehmet Süleyman.