Felt is perhaps the oldest fabric humankind has made without spinning a thread or setting up a loom. It has no warp and no weft; it forms from the structure of wool itself, through the combined action of water, warmth, soap and pressure. Felt-making is therefore the name of a long craft tradition that stretches from the nomadic tents of the Central Asian steppe to the inns, bazaars and village houses of Anatolia. In Amasya and its surroundings, too, felt entered everyday life, from the shepherd's kepenek cloak to the floor rug in the house, from the cushion beneath a packsaddle to the prayer mat, and it lived alongside the region's livestock farming and its bazaar tradesmen.

Official records of the province's handicrafts list carpet and kilim weaving, the towels and sheets woven on whip looms in Merzifon, needle lace, woodwork, ironsmithing and the making of tin samovars. They also note that in Gümüşhacıköy the rope called kırnap, spun from hemp or goat hair, is made into sacks, kilims, saddlebags and cables. Felt-making has no separate entry in that list, and no detailed document or study of felt production specific to Amasya is known. The account below therefore rests on the general history and technique of felt in Anatolia; the passages concerning Amasya reflect only what the records state and the shared craft environment of the region.

What Felt Is and How It Forms

Seen under magnification, the surface of a wool fibre resembles a row of overlapping roof tiles made of tiny scales. Under heat, moisture and pressure, in a soapy and slippery medium, these scales rub against one another, interlock and never come apart again. This is what we call felting. All animal fibres share the property; besides sheep's wool, goat hair and camel hair are also used, but in Anatolia lamb's wool is the preferred raw material. The craft literature states that nothing certain is known about where and how the first felt was made. It is striking that felt-making flourished in cold regions with strong sheep farming. It has also been suggested that in the cave age felt may have formed spontaneously from wool scraps under the effect of moisture and pressure.

In Anatolian woollen weaving, the wool shorn in spring and the wool shorn in autumn are treated separately; for felt, the first shearing in June and the second in August are generally chosen. The fleece is first washed free of dirt, and once dry it is either teased apart by hand or opened fibre by fibre with a carder's bow. The carder, called a hallaç, is the craftsman who fluffs the wool by striking the string of the bow with a mallet, and in the workshop the bow and mallet hung on the wall together with the steelyard used to weigh the wool. In later times wool-beating machines took over this work, and pounding and cooking were mechanised as well.

Stages of Production

In the traditional method, a reed mat bound with canes is spread on the ground. If the felt is to be patterned, the design is prepared first, using coloured wool fibres or strips cut from felts made earlier. Over the design the wool is spread to an even thickness with a rod called a sepki or dirgen, which in some regions is made of pomegranate wood. Hot water is sprinkled over the wool, an act called su vermek, giving water; the mat is then rolled up, wrapped in cloth and tied tightly with rope. The roll is pushed back and forth with the feet to pound it. After the first pounding the loose edges are folded inward, a step called pevantlamak, and the felt is turned so that its other face can be pounded too.

Pounding brings the wool together, and the real interlocking is completed by cooking. In cooking, the felt is pressed with hot water and soap, and in some places beaten with the chest. The aim is for the thickness to be equal across the whole surface and for the fibres to be fully intertwined. The cooked felt is washed, dried and cut to the required size. Because a damp, warm environment is needed, this stage was once carried out in bathhouses. It is known that in Konya, the Seljuk capital, the Sahip Ata Hamamı contained sections reserved for felt-making, and in Istanbul the felt-makers cooked their felts, until 1783, in a bathhouse assigned to them at each of At Pazarı and Yenibahçe. The same sources note that some accounts describe a method of cooking without soap, so the use of soap evidently varied with region and master.

The size of the piece and the amount of wool depend on what is being made. A large floor rug generally takes seven to fifteen kilograms of wool. Producing a fine, even surface out of this weight depends on how evenly the master spreads the wool and how moderately he pounds. Once the fibres have locked together, an error cannot be undone. The pattern follows the same rule: coloured wools are laid before cooking and cannot be altered once felting has begun. The master therefore has to hold the whole design in his head before he starts.

The Journey of Felt from the Steppe to Anatolia

The history of felt reaches back through archaeological finds to the kurgan culture of Central Asia. In the kurgans of the Pazyryk Valley in the Altai, excavated by the Russian archaeologist S. I. Rudenko, many felt covers belonging to the Scythian or Saka sphere and dated to the fifth and fourth centuries BC were found, along with figured felt work and small felt figurines called ongun, believed to protect the inside of the yurt from evil. Felts from the Noin-Ula kurgans likewise show figured decoration and scenes of combat between mythological creatures. These examples show that felt was by then not merely a covering but an art advanced in both technique and aesthetics. Among the Huns, women and girls are reported to have spent most of their time making felt rugs or weaving carpets and kilims at the loom, while dyeing and felt-making were carried out only in the warm months and in the open air. In this age, before specialised trades existed, felt was part of the household work inside the tent.

The Oghuz tribes called the felt-covered tent a yurt or a topak ev, "round house". A yurt was raised by laying felts over a wooden frame whose pieces were joined by interlocking and fastening them with narrow woven bands such as the kolan and çarpana; the felt formed the insulating layer that kept out cold, damp and wind. Felt also carried symbolic value in Turkish culture. That rulers were seated on a piece of felt at their enthronement ceremonies shows that the material held a ceremonial meaning as well as a practical one.

Anatolia has older traces of felt too. Hittite women are known to have commonly worn pointed felt caps, flat felt caps were used on the western coasts in antiquity, and various felt caps in the Roman period. After the eleventh century, as the Yörük and Türkmen branches of the Oghuz tribes settled in Anatolia, they brought with them felt headgear such as the börk and külah, and the shepherds the kepenek, an outer garment that protects against cold and wind. After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Turkish communities that flowed into Anatolia took this craft from their own tradition and joined it with the weaving knowledge they found here.

Felt-Makers in the Bazaar and the Ahi Order

With the shift to settled life, felt ceased to be a household task and became a trade with economic value. In Anatolian Seljuk cities, bazaars were named after the work done in them, and the felt-makers' bazaar housed one of the most crowded production groups. In the thirteenth century, within the Ahi organisation that took shape in Anatolia, the guild of felt-makers became one of the important branches of trade. The Ahi order regulated prices, the quality of goods and the tradesmen's relations with the state, and it also bound the steps of master, journeyman and apprentice to discipline. An apprentice could not open a shop before he had learned the trade thoroughly. In Ahi Evren's Letaif-i Hikmet it is stressed that no one can meet all his needs alone and that all branches of craft must therefore be kept alive. The professional ethic of Anatolian tradesmen rested on this idea.

The apprenticeship system was strict. Children who were to be trained beside a master began work before the age of ten and first served two years as unpaid yamak, a helper. If the master saw fit, a two-year apprenticeship followed, then a journeyman's period of 1,001 days; in some trades this span varied with the nature of the craft. A journeyman who had reached sufficient maturity was granted mastership through the şed kuşanma ceremony, the girding of the sash. The apprentice learned by imitation, while the journeyman was also expected to show the ability to manage and the reliability of his word.

In the Ottoman period felt was a need of the state as well as of civilian life. Felt was frequently used in military headgear, boots, tents, saddles and horse harness. Under Abdülhamid I the felt-makers of Istanbul formed a separate guild; from the wool and fleece they were given they produced felt at official prices for the Cebehane, Mehterhane, Tophane, Has Ahur, Buzhane and Tersane and delivered it to them. There were twenty felt-makers' shops at At Pazarı and ten at Yenibahçe. Evliya Çelebi, for his part, describes the felt-makers marching in Istanbul's guild processions on litters, beating wool as they passed. Yet one assessment reminds us that even when felt was used in palace and official circles it was regarded as a plain provincial folk occupation; the value of the craft has largely gone unappreciated outside the circle of those who made it.

The Workshop and the Shop

Traditional felt workshops followed a certain architectural order. Most were narrow shops with a frontage of three to three and a half metres, built side by side and extending deep into the block. In cold regions where felt was cooked in the bathhouse, the front of the shop was kept closed, and beside the door one or two windows were opened at a height of a metre above the ground. Behind the window was a bench wide enough for one person to sit on, and the floor was earth. The earth floor was dug up every two years, soaked with plenty of water, trodden and levelled with a trowel into a hard surface. The reasons for the choice were that earth is soft, lets little cold through and absorbs the surplus water running from the mould. In centres without the bathhouse tradition the floor was laid with boards. With mechanisation, concrete replaced earth floors.

These workshops were more than production sites. Besides production they served for display, sale and storage, and they worked as a trade school that taught apprentices and journeymen manners, conduct and craft. In the shops observed in Konya's Gevraki Han, it is recorded that worked felts hung down to the floor from nails driven near the high ceilings of rooms of about sixty square metres. In some regions the masters went at certain times to villages and hamlets to make felt in the places shown to them; this practice no longer exists.

Uses of Felt

Felt spread so widely because its raw material is natural and durable, and because it keeps food placed in it as it was put there. Dozens of types can be listed: milk felt, horse felt, sweat felt, load felt, packsaddle felt, tent felt, door curtain, snow felt, prayer mat, cradle, bench felt, felt boots, caps, coins in the form of felt sikke, and the wrapping felt known as swaddling. Items such as the arakıye, a skullcap, the börk and the Hayderiyye are likewise products of this craft.

In daily life the best known are the floor rug, the kepenek and the packsaddle felt. The floor rug is a large ground covering. The bench cover is spread over the sedir or along the wall and has finer patterning. The kepenek is the plain, waterproof outer garment shepherds throw over their shoulders against cold and rain, known especially around Afyon and Iğdır. On saddles and packsaddles, felt is the protective layer in direct contact with the animal's back. A compilation on saddlery explains that a packsaddle is made by wrapping felt, leather and reed around a wooden frame, with soft felt sewn onto the underside for the animal's comfort and the upper face covered with felt or a rug. Saddlery is also among the recorded handicrafts of Amasya; one may say that felt and saddlery are bound together through this shared material, but no detailed record of that relationship in Amasya exists.

Pattern and Meaning

Felts were often made not only for use but with motifs charged with meaning. Among the common motifs, mal gözü stands for protection from evil, tik for balance and order, kaburga for durability and strength, yürek for fidelity, alaca kapı for passage and transformation, and cılga tekir for continuity and movement. The mihrap pattern carries a sense of spiritual orientation. Motifs such as sığır sidiği, bukağı and kaz ayağı derive from traditional weaving patterns. Motifs vary with the taste of the region and the purpose of the piece. Patterning done during production by laying the wool is called döşeme nakışı, and decoration applied afterwards to finished felt is called el işleme nakışı. Techniques such as appliqué, dyeing, mosaic appliqué and suzeni or chain work are also used in felt decoration.

Most of these patterns are the product of women's labour. Women played a decisive role in cleaning the wool, preparing the dowry and placing the designs. It is recorded that before a girl married, two or three patterned felt rugs were prepared for her dowry. Practice varied from region to region, but it is widely accepted that a well-made felt served for years without wearing out and was therefore counted among the valuable items of a dowry. In some parts of Anatolia making felt became a communal task of the village, with a halay danced to drum and zurna, and felt entered songs and sayings. The songs sung and the rhymes murmured during pounding are described as a method that eased heavy work and bound the workers' movements to a rhythm.

Decline and Rediscovery

The forces that shook felt-making were the cheap and fast production of industrial textiles, migration from village to city, and the decline of livestock farming. After 1980 many workshops closed and masters turned to itinerant work. Afyon once had some sixty felt workshops and today has three. Of twenty workshops in Siverek only one still works, and in the Yalvaç district of Isparta, where about eighty workshops operated in the felt-makers' bazaar between 1960 and 1975, a single workshop remains. In Ardahan production has ended altogether. Masters still carry on the tradition in Konya, Afyon, Balıkesir, Urfa, Kahramanmaraş, Isparta, the Akhisar and Kula districts of Manisa, and the Tire, Ödemiş and Bademli area of İzmir.

Despite this decline, the value of the craft has been acknowledged nationally and internationally. The Konya master Mehmet Girgiç was named a UNESCO Living Human Treasure for felt-making in 2009, and the Afyon master Ahmet Yaşar Kocataş in 2016. In the Republican period, the Law on Trade and Industry of 1924 and the Law on Tradesmen's Associations and Unions of 1949 placed the order of apprentice, journeyman and master within a legal framework, and this training continues today through the apprenticeship system under the Ministry of National Education, KOSGEB support and vocational courses opened by local administrations. That the loss of workshops and masters threatens not only the product but cultural continuity is also why UNESCO's approach to safeguarding intangible heritage puts the place of production and the person to the fore.

In recent years the fact that felt is a natural, breathable and wholly organic material has revived interest in the craft. Designers carry felt into bags, slippers, hats, jewellery and artistic panels, and academics try new designs with traditional techniques. Specialists advise reading changing tastes well and spreading products suited to the needs of people today if the craft is to survive. No documented initiative in this direction is known in Amasya.

Chronology

5th-4th century BC: Figured felt covers and felt figurines called ongun in the Pazyryk kurgans of the Altai.

11th century: Settlement of the Oghuz tribes in Anatolia; use of the börk, külah and kepenek.

1071: After the Battle of Manzikert, Turkish communities flow into Anatolia.

13th century: Formation of the Ahi organisation; organisation of the felt-makers' guild.

1783: In Istanbul, the date up to which felt-makers cooked their felts in bathhouses, according to the sources.

1924 and 1949: The Law on Trade and Industry and the Law on Tradesmen's Associations and Unions.

2009 and 2016: Mehmet Girgiç and Ahmet Yaşar Kocataş named UNESCO Living Human Treasures.

Sources

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources