Safranbolu

Safranbolu is the largest and most developed district of Karabük province. It is famous for its historic houses, which reflect classic Ottoman town architecture, and thanks to them it has been on the World Heritage List since 17 December 1994 and draws many visitors. The town takes its name from saffron, a rare plant grown in the area.

Because of its location, Safranbolu has been an administrative and trading centre throughout history. According to the 2000 census its population was 47,257.

It lies in the region known in antiquity as Paphlagonia and has been home to many civilisations. It passed for good into Turkish hands in 1196. Under the Ottomans it enjoyed its most important period in the 17th century, when it stood on the road from Istanbul to Sinop.

The town has a Faculty of Fine Arts and Design named after Fethi Toker and a vocational school, founded in 2002 as part of Zonguldak Karaelmas University.

History

In ancient times the town lay in Paphlagonia, the region mentioned in Homer's Iliad, and its known history goes back to around 3000 BC. Burial mounds (tumuli) dated to 3000 and 4000 BC show that people have lived here for a very long time. Historians Faroqhi and Deguilhem have linked it with ancient towns such as Flaviopolis, Theodoropolis, Hadrianopolis, Germia and Dadibra (Dadybra). The first known peoples of the area were the Gaspas and Zalpas, neighbours of the Hittites. They were followed by the Hittites, the Phrygians, indirectly the Lydians, the Persians, the Hellenistic kingdoms (Pontus), the Romans and Byzantines, the Seljuks, the Çobanoğulları, the Candaroğulları and the Ottomans.

When the Seljuks first took the town for a time, its name was Dadibra. Safranbolu passed into Turkish hands in 1196, taken by Muhiddin Mesut Şah, son of the Seljuk sultan Kılıç Arslan II. He promised to spare the lives of the Greek Byzantine inhabitants if they surrendered without a fight, but the records say the town was taken by force, and nothing is known of what happened to the Christians. The Çobanoğulları held it from 1213 to 1280, the Candaroğulları from 1326 to 1354, and the Ottomans after 1423. A Greek community lived in today's Kıranköy, which later became the main Greek quarter, and the population exchange of 1923 took place here.

Under the Seljuks the town was called Zalifre and became part of the frontier zone of Sinop, Kastamonu, Safranbolu, Gerede and Söğüt. In the following years it changed hands several times between Turkmens and Byzantines. From 1213 to 1280 it was ruled by the Çobanoğulları, a frontier principality of the Anatolian Seljuk state based around Kastamonu and Sinop, which later paid tribute to the Mongol Ilkhanids.

In 1326 Süleyman Pasha of the Candaroğulları took the town. In 1332 the traveller Ibn Battuta, on his way to Kastamonu, met the governor Ali Bey, son of the pasha of Kastamonu. According to Ibn Battuta, there was a medrese teaching the Hanafi school of Islamic law when he arrived. Islamic building activity picked up under the Candaroğulları: the Gazi Süleyman Pasha Mosque was in use, along with an old Byzantine church, two baths and several fountains. A comparable wave of Islamic building would come only in the 17th century.

Safranbolu first came under Ottoman control in the mid-14th century and remained a frontier between the Ottomans and the Candaroğulları until it was finally conquered in 1416. The Ottomans tried to settle many Turkmen nomads known as the Yörükan-i Taraklı here, and from then on the town was called Taraklı Borglu, or simply Borglu and Borlu. In the mid-18th century the name Zağfiran Borlu came into use, briefly Zağfiran Benderli in the mid-19th century, and then Zağfiran Bolu in the last quarter of that century. Finally it became Zafranbolu and then Safranbolu.

Under the Ottomans, especially in the 17th century, the town reached its cultural and economic peak as a stopping place on the Istanbul–Sinop caravan route. In the same period the Ottoman court and statesmen gave it important buildings.

From the 18th century on, through the reigns of Selim III and Mahmud II and increasingly after 1850, documented migration to Istanbul brought people from Safranbolu into positions of influence at court. Most of the migrants worked as bakers or seamen. According to Xavier de Planhol, from 1860 people from Safranbolu held a near monopoly on baking in Istanbul, and roughly three in every five bakery workers came from the Safranbolu area. Most likely, well-placed people brought their relatives, friends or clients from Safranbolu to Istanbul. Planhol also notes that most of the Greeks who moved from Safranbolu to Istanbul were seamen.

With the Karabük iron and steel works, which opened in 1939, attention shifted to Karabük, and Safranbolu was little affected by the modern urbanisation that swept Anatolia in the 1950s. As a result its architectural traditions survived, especially its earthquake-resistant, half-timbered, three-room houses in the Pontic Greek style. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List on 17 December 1994, giving it the title of “World City”. Safranbolu is an active member of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC) and hosted the OWHC board meeting in 2000.

Geography and climate

Safranbolu lies in the western Black Sea region, 8 km from the provincial centre and 65 km inland from the sea. It borders the central district, Ovacık and Eflani in Karabük, Ulus in Bartın, and Araç in Kastamonu.

The district covers 1,013 km², most of it forested, and the terrain is rugged. The lowest point is at 300 metres and the highest at 1,750 metres; in the town itself the ground ranges from about 400 to 600 metres.

Besides the main rivers, the Araç, the Soğanlı and the Ovacuma, many small streams with little water have carved large canyons. Alongside deep, long canyons there are large caves and powerful springs gushing from cave mouths on the mountainsides. The Tokatlı (Gümüş), Akçasu and Bulak streams form three separate canyons, run through the town and join the Araç, which meets the Soğanlı and reaches the Black Sea by way of the Filyos.

Safranbolu has two highland pastures, Uluyayla and Sarıçiçek. Uluyayla, 50 km from town, covers 280 hectares over 7 km and has a pond in the middle and a cave with an underground river. Sarıçiçek, 8 km from Safranbolu, is used for camping and mountaineering. The area also has canyons and caves. Bulak (Mencilis) Cave is 2,725 metres long, has two entrances and is lit for 350 metres. The horizontal fossil cave of Hızar has a large entrance, and Ağzıkara Cave is known for its stalactites and stalagmites.

Lying between the Black Sea and Central Anatolian climates, Safranbolu has hot summers, cold winters and mild, cool springs. Spring and autumn are long. Summers have become drier in recent years, and most rain falls in spring, autumn and winter. Average annual rainfall is about 500 mm, humidity about 60%, and it snows on about 35 days a year.

The Çarşı (market) and Bağlar (vineyards) quarters lie at different heights and are surrounded by forest, so temperatures differ between them. Çarşı sits on the side slopes of the valleys; it is milder, sheltered from the wind and gets less snow, so it was used as the winter quarter. Bağlar, higher up, is exposed to the wind, cool in summer and snowy in winter, so it served as the summer quarter.

Population

Towards the end of the 19th century the town had about 7,500 inhabitants. When the Greek Orthodox population left for Greece in the 1923 population exchange, it fell to 5,000 and stayed there until the 1940s. After the Karabük iron and steel works opened in 1937, many craftsmen and farmers left Safranbolu to work there, and Karabük grew to 100,000 people; even so, Safranbolu's population rose to about 20,000 after the 1940s.

The population was 44,788 in the 1997 census and 47,257 in 2000, with 31,697 in the town and 15,560 in the villages. In 1997 the municipality of Safranbolu had 32,150 residents and that of Ovacuma 1,879.

Administration

After the 19th-century reforms of Ottoman administration, Safranbolu became the centre of the Safranbolu kaza (district) within Kastamonu province. Towards the end of that century a modern government building was put up on the hill where the castle once stood.

Administratively tied to Kastamonu for most of the Ottoman period, Safranbolu was attached to Zonguldak in the Republican era. When Karabük, which until 1937 had been a neighbourhood of the village of Öğbeli in Safranbolu, became a province on 6 June 1995, Safranbolu became one of its districts.

At the time of the 2004 elections the district had two municipalities, Safranbolu and Ovacuma. In those elections Nihat Cebeci of the AKP won Safranbolu with 46.27% of the vote, and Abdullah Deniz of the DSP won Ovacuma with 42.70%.

The town has three main parts. The old town is where the half-timbered three-storey houses stand, many of them protected and some used as museums. Kıranköy, officially Misak-ı Milli and known locally as Granköy, is where the Greek Orthodox population lived before the 1923 exchange. Bağlar is where well-off families spent the summer among their vineyards and orchards. Until 1923 Greek and Turkish families lived side by side in Bağlar; after 1923 people from old Safranbolu began living there all year round.

Economy

Under the Ottomans, its position on a major trade route and the sale of its goods in Istanbul kept Safranbolu important in trade for many years. In those busy times the Cinci Han and Cinci Hamam were in constant use, and producers and tradesmen were organised in guilds.

A multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-faith town, Safranbolu was far from the main roads in early times and was not one of the major centres of Anatolia's leather industry, but it was important for leather in its own region. Leatherwork came third after farming and timber.

When the Karabük iron and steel works was founded in the 1940s, Safranbolu began to lose its economic strength. As workers moved to the factory, crafts such as leatherwork and farming such as viticulture, saffron and livestock all declined. From the 1970s on, tourism brought the economy back to life.

In agriculture, forestry and cereals come first. Livestock farming is mainly cattle.

According to 2004 records there were 1,855 income-tax payers, 934 small traders taxed on a simplified basis, 218 corporate taxpayers and 3,007 taxpayers in total. In 2005 the district was assessed 17,393,507.75 new lira in tax and paid 13,971,967.41. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry listed 702 businesses: 365 sole proprietorships, 38 joint-stock companies, 2 general partnerships, 1 limited partnership, 1 ordinary company, 139 limited companies, 42 ordinary partnerships, 6 consumer cooperatives, 23 development cooperatives and 85 housing cooperatives.

Education

Safranbolu has two independent preschools with 451 children, 16 primary schools (11 in town and 5 in villages) with 5,229 pupils, and 9 secondary schools with 1,981 students. The Fethi Toker Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, founded in 2002 under Zonguldak Karaelmas University and now part of Karabük University, and a vocational school keep the town lively. In the 2005–2006 academic year the faculty had 77 students and the vocational school 1,839.

The town has two public libraries, Safranbolu and Ovacuma. The Safranbolu District Public Library was built in 1981 and opened on 23 April 1982, and the Ovacuma library opened as its branch on 12 December 2002.

Culture

Safranbolu's famous houses were built with architectural knowledge that reflects the history, culture, economy, technology and way of life of 18th- and 19th-century Turkish society. Of the roughly 2,000 traditional houses in the town, about 800 are legally protected.

At the end of the 19th century the town had 28 mosques, 2 Greek Orthodox churches, 13 dervish lodges (Naqshbandi and Khalwati), 2 libraries, 191 schools with 2,937 pupils, 12 medreses, 8 Greek schools, a telegraph station, 24 inns, 11 baths, 940 shops and a hospital for the poor and for syphilis patients, mostly former soldiers and their relatives.

In some 3,000 years of history many civilisations have lived here and left a rich cultural legacy. Visitors are drawn above all to the Ottoman-era inns, baths, mosques, fountains, bridges and mansions.

Added to the World Heritage List by UNESCO on 17 December 1994, Safranbolu holds 1,125 of the roughly 50,000 listed cultural and natural assets in Türkiye, which makes it a museum town.

When the High Council for Monuments declared the town an urban conservation area in 1975, it attracted academic interest, which over time spread beyond Türkiye. As visitors began to arrive, small and medium-sized guesthouses opened from the early 1990s. Abandoned mansions became hotels and restaurants, monuments were restored and forgotten crafts were revived.

In the old town centre, a World Heritage Site and conservation area, 1,008 historic structures are registered: a private museum, 25 mosques, 5 tombs, 8 historic fountains, 5 baths, 3 inns, a historic clock tower, a sundial and hundreds of houses and mansions. There are also mounds, historic bridges and rock tombs.

Every year Safranbolu holds the Uluyayla Festival in the second week of August and a film festival from 20 to 24 September.

Location, neighbours, villages and neighbourhoods

Safranbolu lies in the northwestern Black Sea region at 41°16' north and 32°41' east, 65 km inland from the Black Sea as the crow flies. When Karabük became a province in 1995, Safranbolu was attached to it. Its neighbouring provinces are Bartın and Kastamonu, and its neighbouring districts Ulus, Eflani, Araç and Ovacık. It has 59 villages, including Bulak, Gayıza (İncekaya), Tokatlı, Danaköy, Yazıköy, Konarı, Yörük (Yürük), Akören (Akveren), Oğulören (Oğulveren), Davutobası, Bostanbükü, Çerçen, Hacılarobası, Karıt, Başköy, Kılavuzlar and Kapullu. Ovacuma is the centre of a sub-district. Yörük village, near Safranbolu, has long been known for its large houses and for the people who went to work as bakers, especially in Istanbul. In 1995 Safranbolu had 20 neighbourhoods: Akçasu, Babasultan, Bağlarbaşı (Bağlar), Çavuş, Çeşme, Cami-i Kebir, Hacıhalil, Hüseyin Çelebi, Musalla, İsmetpaşa, İzzetpaşa, Karaali, Kirkille, Aşağı Tokatlı, Barış, İnönü, Yeni Mahalle, Cemal Caymaz, Emek and Esentepe. Kıranköy first became the Misak-ı Milli neighbourhood and after 1975 was split into two, Barış and İnönü.

Historical background

The Safranbolu area has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic. There are three large mounds around Eflani. Homer calls the region Paphlagonia. After the Persian and Hellenistic periods it was densely settled in Roman and Byzantine times. The Safranbolu–Eflani area has 24 tumuli, various rock tombs and reliefs, and a Roman temple in the village of Sipahiler south of Safranbolu. Within Safranbolu itself there are no Roman or Byzantine remains, and the town's name in that period is not known. Leonard suggests Safranbolu may be ancient Germia, while Ainsworth says the old name of Zafaran Bolı was Flaviopolis, also meaning saffron town. Osman Turan writes that before the Turks took it the town was called Dadybra.

After the Turks arrived in Anatolia, Safranbolu's history followed that of Kastamonu. The area first passed to the Turks under the Danishmendids in the early 12th century, then returned to Byzantium, and in the early 13th century the Çobanoğulları settled here, first under the Seljuks and then the Ilkhanids. The Candaroğulları principality, founded in Eflani in the late 13th century by the Kayı tribe, likewise lived under the Seljuks and then the Ilkhanids, was briefly independent in the early 15th century, and then ruled as an Ottoman vassal until 1461. The town's name in that period is thought to have been Zalifre or Zalifra. From the Candaroğulları period, the Old Mosque, the Süleyman Pasha Medrese and the Old Bath survive. In all these periods, and later under the Ottomans, the regional centre was always Kastamonu. From the Candaroğulları period and for a long time under the Ottomans, Safranbolu was known as Taraklı Borlu. From the 18th century the names Zağfiran-Borlu and then Zağfiranbolu came into use. The Greeks called it Safranpolis or Theodoropolis.

Little has been published on Safranbolu's Ottoman past. Its historic buildings, however, bring certain names to light: Cinci Hoca, Köprülü Mehmed Pasha and İzzet Mehmed Pasha all left buildings in Safranbolu.

Important historic buildings

No Byzantine building remains have yet been identified within Safranbolu. The Church of Hagios Stephanos (now the Ulu Mosque) in Kıranköy may have been built by Theodora, and the Old Mosque may have been converted from a Byzantine church. Turkish remains begin with the Candaroğulları period, and these buildings have changed over time. Here are only the most important:

Religious buildings

There are about 30 mosques. The oldest is the Süleyman Pasha Mosque (Old Mosque) from the Candaroğulları period (14th century). The most important later ones are the Köprülü Mehmed Pasha Mosque (1662), the İzzet Mehmed Pasha Mosque (1796), the Dağdelen Mosque (1768) and the Kazdağlı Mosque (1779).

Educational buildings

Only the foundations of the Süleyman Pasha Medrese (14th century) survive today.

Public buildings

The Cinci Hoca Caravanserai (Cinci Han, 17th century), the Old Bath (14th century) and the New Bath (17th century), as well as about 100 fountains and some 15 bridges.

These buildings suggest that Safranbolu rose to importance in the 14th century, received the attention of statesmen from the 17th to the end of the 18th century, and from the 18th century onwards, as its own wealth grew, built many small mosques and especially fountains until the first quarter of the 20th century.

Yalkın counted 2,841 houses in 1940: 1,766 in the town and 1,075 in Bağlar. The Greeks worked as traders, shoemakers, tailors, builders and stonemasons, and spoke Turkish. They had no summer houses, and they left for Greece in the exchange (1924). The 1965 census recorded 2,301 houses: 1,140 in the town, 249 in Kıranköy and 912 in Bağlar.

We know nothing of the population before the census of the late 19th century. Judging by where the monuments stand, the settlement began in and around the castle, gradually grew to fill the valley, and as security and prosperity increased, the vineyards became summer neighbourhoods. The population probably never exceeded ten thousand.

Apart from the beys, officials and Greeks, society in the old days seems to have been fairly homogeneous, sustained by high incomes and the closed economy of the time; the fact that every family had two houses shows this. Production and trade were organised in guilds that supervised and supported one another. Social classes emerged once the guilds were abolished, the old economic order broke down and the iron and steel works was founded. Today the population is roughly 37% workers, 20% civil servants, 11% small shopkeepers, 8% craftspeople, 4% merchants, 1% farmers and 19% others.

There are some Yörük villages around Safranbolu, the main ones being Yürük, Hacılarobası and Davutobası. Besides the Yörüks who settled around 1935, there were also nomadic groups (Tahtacı and Çepni), as well as Kurds and Zazas who lived as nomads in the area.

Folklore

Safranbolu has the richest folklore in the region. Its customs, traditions, tales, folk songs, music and dances each deserve study in their own right, and behind them all we can see the character of Turkish society.

Economy in the past

Looking at Safranbolu's houses, their size, sound and careful construction, rich interiors and large gardens full of fruit trees with pools and pool pavilions, the fact that every family had a summer and a winter house, and the worldliness, refinement and dignity of the people, we are led to ask where this wealth came from.

Farming

In the closed economy of the town, everyone grew their own food: vegetables, fruit and seasonal produce that could be prepared and stored. Meat, fat and sugar were bought in. Most families in Safranbolu had fields around the town, and there were once rice paddies where the iron and steel works now stands. Wheat, barley, rice and straw came from these fields, which were worked by sharecroppers.

Saffron

Since the town's name begins with “saffron” and it is still grown here, it deserves a closer look. Saffron (Crocus sativus L.), of the iris family (Iridaceae), is a bulbous plant like a crocus, with lilac to purple flowers. It blooms in September and October. The stigmas are picked at sunrise. It flowers one year after planting, is harvested for two years and then dug up. The stigmas of 100,000 flowers weigh only about 1 kg.

Uses: as a scentless dye with medicinal properties, it is used in pharmacy, in dyeing and as a food additive. As a dye it can colour a hundred thousand times its own weight of water.

History: Homer and Hippocrates mention saffron. It has long been grown in Iran and Kashmir. The Mongols spread it to China, the Arabs to Spain and the Crusaders to Europe. In ancient Greece and Rome it was chewed for its scent and medicinal effect and used as a dye.

Where it grows: Spain, France, Sicily, the foothills of the Apennines, Iran and Kashmir. In Türkiye it has been grown in Istanbul, İzmir, Safranbolu, Adana and Birecik. In Safranbolu a few families in three villages (Akveren, Oğulveren and Davutobası) still grow it.

Economy: little is known yet about the economic value of saffron at the turn of the century. We know that at the end of the 19th century the saffron harvested in Safranbolu in October was exported to Syria and Egypt. In 1923 saffron worth 3,200 Ottoman lira was sold to Istanbul and Ankara. Saffron grown in Türkiye today does not meet domestic demand, and the rest is imported.

Livestock

In town, nearly every house kept a cow for its milk. In the mornings it was handed to the hergeleci, the herdsman of the communal herd known as the hergele. The animal most often raised in the area is the Angora goat. Milk was made into yoghurt and butter. Animals for slaughter were mostly males. Mutton is not eaten in Safranbolu. In autumn, goat meat was made into kıyma, a meat confit, to be eaten when no animals were slaughtered. Livestock also mattered for wool, hair and hides.

Beekeeping on the highland pastures was another important trade in the old days. Honey was used instead of sugar, and beeswax was extracted and exported; it was also used in leather stitching.

Leatherwork

Leather and leather goods were Safranbolu's most important products. We don't know when tanning began here. The Tabakhane valley was ideal for it, both for its natural form and for the water used in tanning, the easy disposal of waste water and the way it kept smells and unsightly work away from the town, so it may have been set aside for tanning from very early on. Ottoman leatherwork was highly developed until the end of the 18th century. Mordtmann wrote in 1852 that Safranbolu's leather trade had economic value, and in the 1890s there were 84 tanneries. With a population of 7,500 at the time, leatherwork must have been a very intensive trade. Because Safranbolu was cut off from outside influences and mechanisation reached leatherwork late, the trade continued more or less until the mid-20th century. Guilds were abolished by law in 1910, but their influence lived on in tradition, gradually fading. Later, exporting semi-processed hides to Europe became profitable, and some of the merchants who sold them grew rich. A booklet published by the Safranbolu Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1924 records 415 people working in nearly a hundred tanneries and 430 as makers of yemeni (traditional flat leather shoes), shoemakers and stitchers. Exports of morocco leather, buffalo hide, black and white calf and sole leather were worth 84,600 Ottoman lira, while 17,900 lira of European sole leather, glacé and patent leather was imported, and cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep hides worth 56,000 lira were brought in from the surrounding area. There were 16 leather merchants and 5 merchants trading in yemeni and shoes. In the same years the Safranbolu Tanning Company was completing a leather factory, which unfortunately ran for only a short time.

Changing shoe fashions and the arrival of cheaper rubber shoes for villagers reduced the importance of yemeni making. Factories founded around Anatolia for semi-processed hides, and finally the iron and steel works, brought leatherwork to an end.

Tabakhane: the tannery quarter lies in a valley along the stream of the same name, with its own small mosque and coffeehouse. The water that rises beneath the mosque has a chemical make-up suited to tanning. Hides left in natural and artificial pits along the valley sides mature over a set time. Tanning is tiring, slow work, and those who did it were organised in guilds. Raw hides gathered from the surrounding area were turned here into the finest leather using traditional methods. In 1975 there were two workshops that occasionally used traditional methods and two that did some stages by machine.

Leather workers: the leather tanned here was bought by stitchers, saddle makers and harness makers.

Arasta: the stitchers who made yemeni and owned shops gathered in the covered market known as the arasta, employing journeymen and apprentices. The arasta has 46 tiny shops, each with 3 to 5 workers. Yemeni were displayed strung on cords. At the turn of the century, women's shoes were made, from small to large, as zenne and zelgerde, and men's as lorta, ürüzger and ulu ayak; mes (soft indoor boots) and süm süm mes were made too. Most yemeni were sold to travelling shoe dealers (kavaf) who came to Safranbolu with many pack animals. On Saturday afternoons the stitchers packed their shoes in baskets and sold them wholesale; buyers usually came every two weeks. Despite working until dawn, the stitchers only got by and never grew rich. They settled accounts with the tanners once a year, from November to November, without cash changing hands in between. How important yemeni making was can be seen from the fact that it supplied part of the army's needs in the War of Independence. In 1923, shoes worth 15,000 Ottoman lira were sold to the surrounding villages and towns.

By 1975 only one or two shops were still working in the arasta.

Saddle and harness makers: horses and donkeys were the main means of transport in and around Safranbolu, so making pack saddles and harness was a widespread trade. These craftsmen gathered in two streets of the market, Semerciler İçi and Saraçlar İçi. In 1923, 120 people worked as saddle makers.

In 1975 there were a few saddle makers left.

Farriers: since nearly every house in town kept one or two riding animals, there were farriers to shoe them.

Blacksmiths: the blacksmiths, still working in the market area today, were a very important trade in the past. Farm tools, harness parts, tools for working wood and leather, household implements, and tools and fittings for building (axes, adzes, hammers, nails, augers, locks, door rings, knockers, window bars and hooks) were made in the blacksmiths' market.

Coppersmiths: Safranbolu was the copper market of the area. Today's coppersmiths only re-tin vessels and sell copperware made elsewhere, but in the past they made and sold their own.

Weaving

Cloth weaving: weaving was done at home. Though it was part of a closed economy, the surplus was sold, usually in exchange for yarn. At the turn of the century perhaps a quarter of houses had a loom, and yarn was no longer spun but brought in from outside. The cloth with trade value was mostly heavy cloth, sold to merchants who had it dyed. Villagers made men's trousers from the blue-dyed cloth (gök bez), and cloth printed with patterns was sold as çite. Village women made a kind of baggy trousers called dizlik from it, as well as mattress covers and bundle wraps. From finer cloth the merchants had tablecloths printed and yazma headscarves hand-drawn and sold them. Striped cloth, called alaca, was also used for upholstery.

In 1923, cotton yarn worth 72,500 Ottoman lira was brought in. In the same year, cloth was woven on 350 looms, and the white cloth sold in the area earned 21,000 Ottoman lira.

No weaving survives today.

Goat-hair weaving (mutaflık): in some houses, men and women wove sacks, saddlebags, nosebags, girths, horse blankets, bags and drying mats (for spreading bulgur and the like) from animal hair, all for sale. In 1923, 120 people worked in this trade and 5 merchants dealt in it, with sales of 9,000 Ottoman lira.

This craft has also disappeared.

Felt making: felt was made at home or in shops from sheep's wool and donkey hair, entirely for trade. There were 10 felt makers in 1923.

Custom, tradition and religion

Custom, tradition and religion shaped a philosophy of living with little. People were thrifty and had no taste for luxury; simplicity ruled everything. They sat, worked, slept and ate on the floor, and houses held few belongings. Even decoration stayed within the nature of the material, which was never disguised, so rich and poor houses were hard to tell apart. Yet within this simplicity there was abundance: plenty of varied food, many large rooms, even two houses per family. It was a healthy society with no hardship.

Harem and selamlık

Religion and tradition turned the house inward, so interiors and gardens were enclosed by high walls, windows had lattices, and women were not seen by men outside the family. Sometimes even within one house, men and women lived apart. Safranbolu has houses divided into a selamlık (men's and reception quarters) and a harem (family quarters), mostly among the wealthy. The Hacı Memişler vineyard house has adjoining harem and selamlık. Among the houses studied, the Kaymakamlar House has harem and selamlık entrances on different floors from two different streets, and the Hacı Salih Pasha House has two separate entrances and two staircases. Other houses have a single entrance, but one room easily reached from the stairs serves as the selamlık room without disturbing family life. These rooms are a little more elaborate, with clerestory windows in older examples and more decorated ceilings.

The revolving cupboard

Because in the old days women were not seen even at home by men outside the close family, a revolving cupboard was built into a cupboard between two rooms, so that women serving the selamlık from the harem could pass food, coffee and sherbet without being seen. Dishes placed on its shelves were turned by hand to the other side. This design shows how houses without a separate selamlık or servants adapted to tradition.

The selamlık pavilion

Some houses have selamlık pavilions in their gardens, with one or more rooms and usually a pool in the main sitting area. Pools are also found in the selamlık rooms on the ground floors of some houses; both town houses of the Asmazlar family have them. The pool rises 50 to 60 cm from the floor, with divans along the walls around it. The Curtlar family's summer pavilion has a raised platform with posts along the window wall, a coffee hearth, and two side rooms for ablutions and a toilet; its windows still have no glass, and it is built over the ground floor with the pool. In Bağlar, the Rauf Beyler House has a magnificent selamlık pavilion with a rare symmetrical plan: two rooms with an iwan between them, and a pool room 8 metres across with a large central pool, divans and painted decoration, a remarkable piece of architecture. Selamlık pavilions are entered through the garden from a separate street door. Single-room garden pavilions with a central pool, fountain, divans and sometimes a coffee hearth are usually polygonal. In Bağlar, some houses without running water have well rooms with a well in the centre and divans around it, used like pool rooms for keeping cool in summer; water and fruit were chilled in the well.

Ablutions

Religion requires ablutions before prayer, and houses have spaces set aside for washing and full ablution (gusülhane). Fitting the living room itself for full ablution was a sensible way to keep family life private, and the close link between relieving oneself and washing was solved by placing the toilet and ablution area together.

By tradition, dishwater was never mixed with toilet water; where a place for washing dishes was built, the water drained by a separate channel into another pit. No special place was set aside for prayer, since according to belief one may pray in any clean place, in any room.

Safranbolu is a beautiful town where history and people are woven together, and everyone here is warm and friendly. It gives you a sense of peace, and many visitors come from abroad; everyone should see it. Its most famous features are its houses and its lokum (Turkish delight), so be sure to try them, and you will find the peace we spoke of.