The History of the Present State of the Ottoman Empire….5th edition

1682

Shoults Eb 1682 R

London: Printed by T.N. for John Starkey

In the past, clothing was a way of identifying a person’s occupation. Agiamoglan were servants in the Turkish Emperor’s court in the 17th century. Taken from nearby poor Christian families when they were aged around ten years old, Agiamoglan were the ‘heavy-lifters’ of the Seraglio or Emperor’s Court. They worked as porters, gardeners, and cooks; they gathered firewood and butchered meat. Their outfits, as in this image, consisted of garments made of ‘coarse cloth made at Salonica [and]…caps of felt, after the form of a Suger-loaf’ – easily distinguishable from the other thousands of court servants.