When people speak of handicrafts in Amasya, the coppersmiths of the bazaar usually come to mind first, yet production across the province is far broader. The inventory kept by the Amasya Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism lists eight separate branches, from carpet and kilim weaving to needle lace, from woodworking to hemp-rope spinning. Some of these remain, at least in part, commercial activities, while others survive as household traditions. Coppersmithing and samovar making are concentrated in the city centre, whereas weaving and hemp work belong mostly to Merzifon, Gümüşhacıköy and the villages. This article looks at these crafts both as they stand today and against the background of mining, cloth and hemp that lies behind them.

Handicrafts in the Official Inventory

The list of regional handicrafts drawn up by the Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism gives a short and balanced picture of the city's craft structure. It names carpet and kilim weaving, tin samovars, peştamal (bath wrap) and sheet weaving, needle lace, woodworking, kırnap (hemp or goat-hair yarn) and rope spinning, and hot-iron forging. The same text appears in the Amasya Municipality's city guide, where the Directorate is credited as its source. The opening statement of the text matters: handicrafts that are common across Turkey continue to exist in Amasya as well and help support the livelihood of the people. These trades are thus described as activities that still bring in income today.

Each branch has its own geography. Carpet making continues in the town of Yassıçal and the village of Sarıyar; peştamal and sheet weaving is done in the Merzifon area; kırnap and rope spinning belong mainly to Gümüşhacıköy; needle lace is described as "common throughout the region." Hot-iron forging, which produces axes, hatchets, chopping tools, trivets and knives, is also on the list, as are carving and woodworking, meaning the making of musical instruments such as the saz, oud and kanun along with farm tools and household goods. This distribution shows that Amasya, together with its districts, is a multi-centred craft region.

Coppersmithing and the Amasya Samovar

Copper becomes workable when heated, but it still demands patience and manual skill from the craftsman. The coppersmith anneals the sheet in the fire and hammers it into a cauldron, tray, pan or samovar body; the hammer marks on the surface shape both the form and the look of the piece. In the Ottoman period coppersmith workshops existed not only in Gaziantep but also in cities such as Maraş, Mardin, Diyarbakır, Konya, Malatya, Elazığ, Kayseri, Bursa and Istanbul, and in Amasya as well. It follows that Amasya coppersmithing was part of this wide Anatolian craft network.

The product particular to Amasya is the samovar. The Provincial Directorate writes that samovar making developed "practically" out of the local habit of drinking tea, and that samovars specific to Amasya are produced in various sizes. In the official list the item appears under the heading "tin samovar"; in the local press and in the accounts of bazaar tradesmen, however, the Amasya samovar is generally presented as a decorated product made of copper. This difference in naming may point to a change of material over time, but no document at hand settles the matter. A news report of January 2025 says that samovars can be seen steaming almost everywhere in Amasya and that, despite electric tea machines and kettles, they remain the first choice of devoted tea drinkers. The same report counts the patterns worked into copper among the finest examples of the craft and adds that cezves (small coffee pots), sugar bowls and gift items continue to be made alongside samovars.

The source of that report, the craftsman Murat Olgaç, has worked in copper in Amasya for many years and is described in the article as one of the last representatives of the art. Olgaç said that samovar culture is a value for Amasya and that every piece is the accumulation of years. The remark reflects a master's view of his own trade; it also hints that the craft is carried on by a dwindling number of hands, which bears directly on the question of continuity taken up later in this article.

The Taşhan and the Coppersmiths' Bazaar

Today the address of Amasya coppersmithing is the area around the Taşhan on Özkan Yalçın Street in the Dere district. The han (caravanserai-type inn) was built in 1699 for Mutasarrıf (provincial governor) Rahtuvan Hacı Mehmet Pasha by the architect Mehmet Kalfa. Above the main gate stands the han's inscription in a narrow rectangle; a rosette motif appears at the centre of the inscription and on the keystone of the gate arch. Shops line both sides of the gateway, and on entering one reaches a wide courtyard surrounded by various rooms. The upper floor of the two-storey building rests on the arches of this courtyard. Restored by the end of 2012, the han now serves as a hotel and restaurant, and working shops can still be found around it.

The sources differ on the building's date. Most records give 1699; a tourist guide text, however, says that the two-storey, 34-room Taşhan was built in 1758 by the Rahtuvans, one of Amasya's leading families. Which of the two dates agrees with the inscription cannot be settled here. What is certain is that the han is linked with the Rahtuvan family and is presented as an eighteenth-century structure. The same guide text records that in the courtyard tradesmen doing carpentry and metalwork are at work, and that there is also a samovar workshop.

The function of the bazaar has changed in part. In a report of March 2026 a customer visiting the bazaar recalls that he used to come here with his father to have their cauldrons and basins re-tinned, that today the products are preferred mostly as gifts, and that he still owns a heirloom copper samovar. Tinning makes the contact of copper vessels with food safe, and it was once an inseparable part of daily kitchen life. This testimony shows plainly that the bazaar's role has moved from everyday necessity toward souvenir and gift. Another report, from June 2026, says that visitors buy copper samovars, decorated plates, bowls, sugar bowls, cezves and coffee sets above all, and that the tradesmen say interest in handmade goods over factory production has grown.

The Background in Ore: Merzifon and Gümüşhacıköy

The rooting of coppersmithing in Amasya is no accident; the province has very old sources of metal. According to the history compilation published by the Gümüşhacıköy District Governorate, in antiquity copper was obtained from Merzifon and arsenic from the surroundings of Gümüşhacıköy. Works made of arsenical copper form one of the oldest and most important collections in Anatolia. A group of 115 pieces unearthed in the district and its surroundings, thought to date from the Early Bronze Age II and III and offering evidence of Anatolian metallurgy, consists of objects made by casting and forging techniques; it is kept in the Haluk Perk Museum under the name "Gümüşhacıköy Collection." The collection also includes belief symbols found in Merzifon and Gümüşhacıköy, made of copper-based alloys or of silver by forging, hammering and casting.

The same compilation writes that the arsenic deposits near the town of Gümüş and the arsenical copper deposits near Gümüşhacıköy were worked from time to time, and that the lead-silver sources at Gümüş, used since the Iron Age, are claimed to have been worked in the Hittite period as well; the text states this with the phrase "it is put forward," that is, not as established fact. In the Ottoman period, too, gold and silver were scarce in Anatolia, and the most important production areas included Gümüşhane and the Gümüşhacıköy region of Amasya. Among the mines the state ran directly at the end of the nineteenth century was the Gümüşhacıköy lead-silver mine. According to information given by Savaş Dilek, charcoal was used in these mines and smelting works until the first half of the nineteenth century; as the forests around the pits were used up, wood and charcoal had to be brought from ever more distant places.

This information shows that coppersmithing is tied to the region's raw materials and mining tradition rather than being a mere urban pastime. A distinction is needed, however: with the sources at hand it is not possible to establish a documented chain of production between the mineral sources of Merzifon and Gümüşhacıköy and the copper work of today's Amasya bazaar. The mining past therefore explains the ground on which coppersmithing stands; it does not tell us which ore the masters worked with.

Sixteenth-Century Cloth

The loom crafts rest on a past as old as that of copper. According to Adnan Gürbüz's doctoral thesis "XVI. Yüzyılda Amasya Sancağı," around 1570 the yarn and cloth produced within the sanjak were dyed in local dyehouses. Fabrics such as Amasya kirbas, Merzifon kirbas tent cloth, Ladik prayer rugs, Amasya kutni, Amasya red boğası and Gümüş boğası were sought-after goods in the Ottoman cotton market because of their quality.

Boğası is a cloth woven in plain weave from thick cotton yarn spun by hand or on the spinning wheel. It was of middling quality and usually white; coloured pieces took names such as nar neftisi, cengârî, samanı, cevizi and darçınî according to the dyeing technique and dye. Resembling today's American cloth or canvas, the fabric was formerly used as lining for kaftans and went into the making of kaftans, robes, shirts, headgear, wrapping cloths, napkins and cushions. This detail shows that weaving in Amasya was not only a household pursuit; in the sixteenth century it was a commodity that crossed the borders of the sanjak.

Hemp, Weavers and Gümüşhacıköy

Gümüşhacıköy is the place where the weaving past is documented in greatest detail. According to the tax-register (temettuat) records of 1844, the most profitable activity in the district was viticulture on 525 dönüm of land; hemp was grown only in the Saray quarter and the village of Çetmi, on 78 dönüm. The French diplomat and traveller Vitale Cuinet writes in his 1890 work that Gümüşhacıköy had 2,500 weavers in the late nineteenth century. In 1908 a record that passed into the Ottoman archive documents a wage dispute among the workers of the Gümüşhacıköy Towel Factory; the source calls it, in a sense, a strike of textile workers.

Hemp was the staple raw material of this town's weaving economy. The Black Sea region was the centre of linen and hemp weaving, and Gümüşhacıköy produced hemp of good quality within it. Coarse cord and rope were made from every kind of hemp fibre; but if cloth was to be woven, white fibres were chosen, finer yarn was spun, dyed and woven on looms. Short fibre was used for sandal ties and sack twine, and the thick ropes obtained from hemp for making rope. According to a 1941 newspaper report, the price of Gümüşhacıköy hemp fibre fell that year from 70 kuruş to 66 kuruş. In the same year a Weavers' Cooperative was founded in Gümüşhacıköy, and its founding entered the Official Gazette archive; according to the source, only eight cooperatives of this kind were founded across Turkey at that time. Gümüşhacıköy hemp fibre also appears as an export product in the statistics of the Tobacco Monopoly administration.

A 1944 study of small towns includes Gümüşhacıköy among seven towns selected from the Anatolian threshold lands. The study notes that, lacking large areas of cultivation, a considerable part of the town's people were occupied with weaving or hemp processing, and that for this reason the town influenced even better-placed towns in the purchase of hemp. According to the same text, while the town met the needs of about 30,000 people in terms of economic centrality, in the hemp trade it served more than 40,000 to 50,000. Gümüşhacıköy was therefore seen as an important market of the surrounding area for hemp sales alone. In 1958 the town supplied all of the hemp seed sown on 2,243 hectares in Kastamonu, and seed was also sold to provinces such as Kütahya and Malatya.

Today most of this tradition has disappeared. The Gümüşhacıköy District Governorate's compilation writes that the linen weaving with which people met some of their clothing needs until recently has vanished completely from the district, and that hemp was grown in a corner of the fields until the 1970s for weaving needs. The fact that kırnap and rope spinning still appear in the official handicraft list suggests that this legacy has not vanished altogether but that, of the old weaving branch, only the yarn and rope side continues. Cord is spun from hemp or goat hair, called kırnap by local people, and from it sacks, kilims, saddlebags, bags and ropes of various thicknesses are made.

Carpets, Peştamal, Needle Lace and Woodwork

In the words of the official text, carpet making has in recent times begun again to contribute to the local economy. Production continues in the town of Yassıçal and the village of Sarıyar. The word "again" in the text points to a production that weakened for a time and then recovered; no numerical data on when and to what extent this recovery occurred is at hand.

In the Merzifon area, peştamal, sheets and tablecloths are woven on looms known as kamçılı tezgâh. These products are decorated with various shapes and motifs. Needle lace is common everywhere in the region; besides edging the yemeni (headscarf) it has been applied to items such as lapel flowers, handkerchiefs, scarves and coin purses. Carving and woodworking cover the making of musical instruments such as the saz, oud and kanun as well as farm tools and household goods. Hot-iron forging produces axes, hatchets, chopping tools, trivets and knives. Most of these trades are carried on in village and neighbourhood settings rather than in bazaar shops, and for that reason they are less visible than coppersmithing.

A present-day example of these crafts is found in the village of Muşruf, attached to Merzifon. The old village school, long left unused, was converted into a Village Life Centre; village women who attended courses opened under the Merzifon Şehit Abdulmuttalip Kesikbaş Public Education Centre received training in handicrafts and opened an end-of-year exhibition in June 2026. The district officials attended alongside the villagers. This example shows that traditional crafts are now also passed on through institutional support and courses; the master-apprentice relationship is no longer the only channel.

Continuity and Missing Data

The sources at hand draw two different pictures of the present state of Amasya's crafts. On one side stand the coppersmiths of the bazaar, tradesmen who say tourist demand is rising, and samovars sought as souvenirs. On the other side stands a master described in the press as "one of the last representatives," the replacement of the customer who came to have vessels tinned by the buyer of gifts, and a linen weaving that has vanished completely from the districts. The two pictures do not contradict each other; the function of the craft has shifted from goods of necessity to objects of remembrance.

The available sources offer no numerical data on the number of masters in Amasya, the apprenticeship system or the age distribution of craftsmen. It would therefore not be right to reach a general verdict on how much of the craft is alive and how much has turned into tourist display. What can be verified is that eight handicraft branches are registered in the provincial inventory, that coppersmithing continues around the Taşhan, and that the historical weight of weaving and hemp work is documented in local archive records.

Chronology

Third millennium BC (Early Bronze Age II-III): A group of 115 metal finds made by casting and forging, recovered around Merzifon and Gümüşhacıköy, is dated to this period (Haluk Perk Museum, Gümüşhacıköy Collection).

c. 1570: In the sanjak of Amasya, cloth such as kirbas, kutni and boğası is among the goods sought in the Ottoman cotton market.

1699: The Taşhan is built for Mutasarrıf Rahtuvan Hacı Mehmet Pasha by Mehmet Kalfa. Some guide texts also give the date 1758.

1844: Gümüşhacıköy tax registers show 525 dönüm of vineyards and 78 dönüm of hemp fields.

1890: Vitale Cuinet records 2,500 weavers in Gümüşhacıköy.

1908: A wage dispute among the workers of the Gümüşhacıköy Towel Factory enters the Ottoman archive.

1941: A Weavers' Cooperative is founded in Gümüşhacıköy; in the same year the price of hemp fibre falls from 70 kuruş to 66 kuruş.

1958: All of the hemp seed sown in Kastamonu is supplied from Gümüşhacıköy.

2012: Restoration of the Taşhan is completed.

2025-2026: The local press reports on samovar and copperware production in the Coppersmiths' Bazaar and on the handicraft exhibition in the village of Muşruf.

Bibliography

Primary sources

Official sources

Other sources

Online sources