In Cairo, Egypt, a short walk from the historic Bab Zuwayla city gate, is Cairo’s last remaining tarboosh artisan shop. Tarboosh is the word Egyptians use for what people in North America might call a fez. This shop in the Khan al-Khalili market makes high-quality woolen tarbooshes by hand, in the traditional way. I visited it on April 23, 2018.
The tarboosh was fashionable among Egyptian men during the era of the Ottoman Empire. Although the Ottoman Empire itself fell in 1920, the Ottoman viceroy in Egypt declared himself king and continued to rule until Egypt’s revolution in 1952. Since 1952, the tarbooshes have declined in popularity, but the shop continues to generate enough business to continue making them. They export them to many other Muslim countries such as Morocco and Tunisia.
The hand-operated tools are used to shape the tarbooshes. Not only does the shop sell the hats, it also reshapes hats which have been crushed or rumpled through wear.
The photo below shows how the hats are shaped. The shop is equipped with several different sizes of brass molds. These molds come in pairs, with one being slightly larger than the other. First the artisan stretches a tarboosh over the smaller mold in the pair, as he is doing in the photo below. Then he presses over it the heated larger mold, so that the woolen fabric is held between the two.
The photo below shows the interior of a tarboosh. The red felt outer layer is made of wool. Inside it, the stiffening layer is made from palm. A lining around the inner edge protects the head from the scratchy texture of the palm.
Our guide had grown up as a boy near this shop. He told us that he always liked to run past the shop and use his fist to crush the tarbooshes that were on display. One day, the shop owner caught him, and recognized him, and complained to his father. His father was very angry, and beat him for it. However, the next day the mischievous boy did it again!
Today, he laughs as he tells the story. I don’t think he’s sorry at all!
About My Egypt Travels
For several of my trips to Egypt, I have traveled with Sahra Kent, through her Journey Through Egypt program. The tarboosh shop is one of the places I have discovered through traveling with her. I highly recommend the Journey Through Egypt program to anyone who is interested in a cultural perspective of Egypt.