Towel (peşkir) with Design of Floral Motifs

For women, who had no other meeting place, bathhouses were the center of Ottoman social life. Communal bathing provided an opportunity to display richly embroidered towels that were intended to be draped around the body to absorb water or sweat. Towels also had ritual and symbolic roles in births, circumcisions, and marriages. Ottoman towels were of two types: those with a nap or pile and those without. In this fine example of the napped style, the major central portion has bands of pile weaving.