Of disguise and provocation: the politics of clothing in the late Ottoman Empire, 1890-1910

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the fedayee practice of disguise in the context of violence between the years of 1890 and 1910 in the North-east parts of the Ottoman Empire. It mainly focuses on the practice’s itself and reason behind it. Making use of photographs, this thesis also examines the politics of clothing and self-representation. At this juncture, objects in photographs which were intentionally placed fallacious and delusive are examined to clarify possible fedayee clothes which are also analyzed. In order to make sense of the penchant of Armenian fedayees for disguise, this thesis also explores the complexity of Kurdish, Circassian, Georgian, Laz clothing through photographic evidence.