Opinions of Vicente Blasco Ibanez, one of Travelers of 20th Century about Clothes of Turks (Example of “Orient Before The Storm”)

Abstract

“Travel books” or “itineraries” which are one of the oldest types of literature are the works of travelers who traveled different regions for different reasons and transfer the lives, cultures of the people where they travelled to the next generations.Starting point of the author in itineraries is “geography” rather than events. Depending on this fact, the subject of an itinerary is the climate of the region, historical works, old-new buildings, clothes, details of the daily life etc. It is possible to assess itineraries as documents supporting historical, geographical and sociology sciences in terms of contentsThe purpose of this research is to determine the opinions of 20th century travelers on the clothes of Turks. In the research the itinerary of Vicente Blasco Ibanez named “Orient Before the Storm” was examined and it was tried to determine the opinions of the author about garments of that era. In “Orient Before the Storm” which is the travel notes of the Spanish traveler who came to Istanbul in August 1907, Vicente Blasco Ibanez, the great man of letters who is one of the leading politicians of his country states that what was told about Turks in Europe were not correct and wrote his detections which are remarkable even today. In the itinerary there are significant clues on clothing of Turks. Vicente Blasco Ibanez states in his itinerary that Ottoman garments were smart and magnificent.Keywords: travel book, ottoman dress.