The fez (Turkish: fes, Ottoman Turkish: فس, romanized: fes), also called tarboosh / tarboush (Arabic: طربوش, romanized: ṭarbūš), is a felt headdress in the shape of a short, cylindrical, peakless hat, usually red, typically with a black tassel attached to the top.

Oct 18, 2021 · For nearly 45 years, Nasser Abdel Basset has been a proud maker of the fez, the iconic felt hat that was once worn by Egypt's elite, bureaucrats and students.

Dec 3, 2011 · It can be a traditional hat or one popular with locals. In Egypt, the tarboosh used to be worn by every “effendi” (gentlemen) according to Lonely Planet. It was also worn by the military until 1950. I read in my guide book that there was one shop left in Cairo that makes the tarboosh.

Mar 21, 2022 · A remnant of a bygone era, a cultural icon with symbolic importance: the tarboush, or the fez, carries a political past, signifying power and status for the wearer.

Sep 28, 1995 · The fez, or tarbush, was introduced in the 19th century by the founder of modern Egypt, Mohammed Ali Pasha. His grandson, Khedive Abbas I, made it court garb.

Fez hats were once a symbol of the Ottoman Empire. But after they were banned in Egypt in the 1950s, fez shops largely disappeared. We visited one of the las...

Jun 7, 2024 · Even though the fez gets its name from the Moroccan city of Fez, home to a crimson-coloured berry used to create the dye that gives fezzes their vivid red colour, the hat has been a part of Cairo's identity and culture for generations. El-Baset is determined to keep it …

Apr 4, 2025 · The fez can be traced back to the early nineteenth century when, according to Robert Anderson in Fifty Hats That Changed The World (2011): “the modernizing sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mahmud II, decreed the abolition of the traditional male headgear, the turban, and its replacement by the tasseled red fez, which was already worn by some of ...

Nasser Abdul Bassett, one of the last fez makers in Cairo, continues his 130-year-old business by custom-making fez hats using woven straw bases, copper molds, silk linings, and colored tassels to signify different professions, with each fez having its unique mold named after Ottoman rulers.

View over Fes el-Bali The History of Fez begins with its foundation by Idris I and Idris II at the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th century CE. It initially consisted of two autonomous and competing settlements on opposing shores of what is now known as the Oued Fes.