Turkish Textiles

While Turkey was the Ottoman Empire (1299 through 1922), textiles were an important part of their economy and a feature of the nobility. Any textile sold was a part of the empire’s treasury which in those days belonged to the sultan (king) and the royal family. In this way, textiles and the wealth of the sultan were interchangeably illustrating the importance of textiles in the Ottoman Empire. This fact also indicates that Ottoman textiles had to be of high quality, and were considered to be a luxury item.