Weaver (ha'ik / nassaj)

The TDV entry describes the cullah, the Ottoman weaver, who mostly wove cotton. He bought yarn ready-spun or spun raw cotton himself, worked to orders from the cloth merchants, and could not sell his cloth in the market himself. The weavers of a town formed a guild led by an ahi baba, and men of experience checked the length and quality of the cloth. The craft gave way to Indian and then European cotton, and its guilds collapsed in the 1850s. ¹

The entry derives cullah, in Arabic jawlah or jallah, from Persian, meaning one who weaves. The Turks said culha. In Ottoman usage the word mostly meant cotton weavers, and it covered individuals working in towns, small market towns and villages, not only guild members. The Fatih law set a yearly 3 akce on village weavers for three services and nothing more. The entry does not use the Arabic words ha'ik or nassaj. ¹

Cotton was the main fibre. The entry names Isparta, Burdur, Denizli, Konya, Ankara, Manisa, Akhisar and Bergama in the west and centre, and Mardin, Diyarbakir, Urfa and Adana in the east and south-east, as cotton regions. Wool also appears, and in the Mardin law the wool workers were also called cullah. In Bursa the makers of beledi and futa cloths were cullah. Common products were coarse cloth, lining, striped cloth, muslin, makrama and shirting, and some groups were named after their cloth, such as the lining weavers and the beledi weavers. ¹

Tokat had the largest group in the middle of the fifteenth century, 306 weavers. The entry also names Erzincan, Kemah, Diyarbakir, Mardin, Siverek, Arapkir, Ergani, Urfa and Manisa. Manisa had 3,000 looms in the nineteenth century and 1,050 in the early Republic. Around Manisa, Akhisar, Tire, Bergama and Birgi the weavers made sailcloth and tent cloth for the navy and shipyard, and shirting for the galleys' slaves. ¹

Looms differed in size, and the comb and shuttle were measured for the cloth. The entry says looms were made by the weavers, ordered or bought ready, and gives the 1640 price list: an Edirne loom 170 akce, a plain loom 120. Combs were counted in cile of forty teeth, and combs of eight to thirteen cile were sold. In some eastern places the loom pit was taxed, and the entry says the pit was probably linked to wool weaving. ¹

The weavers of a town agreed the quantity and size of cloth among themselves, and the qadi certified it through the ahi baba. The officers were the yigitbasi, the ahi baba and the experts. A selected inspector checked output, and cloth that exceeded the size or was faulty was torn and the weaver fined. The torn cloth was shown in public and often given to the poor, and in Manisa to the hospital. The entry names no patron saint. It mentions a flag dispute of 1671 in Bursa involving the Ahi Ali lodge. ¹

The weavers often worked to orders from the cloth merchants and became dependent on them. They could not sell their own cloth in the market, which the entry says caused frequent disputes. After dyeing, the merchants sold the cloth in the covered market. Cloth was stamped for a fee. Several district laws taxed cloth brought to market, and the Mardin law's 24 akce per loom pit was later given up. The entry gives no wages. ¹

From the seventeenth century cheap Indian cotton yarn and cloth flooded the Ottoman markets, and the weavers used the yarn and imitated Indian cloth. In the second half of the eighteenth century European cottons imitating muslin entered. The entry calls the European mechanisation of the 1830s a turning point, and says cheap imports in local markets hastened the collapse of the guilds by the 1850s. The First World War disrupted weaving, and it revived briefly in the early Republic before machines ended it. ¹

• TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, "CULLÂH", Feridun Emecen, vol. 8, Istanbul 1993, pp. 83–84. ¹