Art from the Levant

Recently we joined the work of another agency to prepare an oral history archive on BME women’s contribution to life in the UK.  We invited women sharing the heritage of Turkish speaking lands to come and take part in the training and the exhibition to follow.  Very few put their names forward!  Is it because culturally women fear self expression, which then results in self censorship?  Whatever the reason, it seems to be a pity.  The ‘Ottoman Traders Guild’ website tries to present the richness of this heritage by portraying an Ottoman Turkish Trading Caravan of the mid-1500s.  According to the information provided at their website, Ottoman Traders capture traditions of music and dance and represent several nationalities in different languages.  They portray caravan characters in full costume.  Out of respect for all faiths, they do not portray any form of religion.  During the Renaissance, which they date as 1520 – 1600 for their purposes, trade was happening either through walking caravans travelling from city to city or by merchant ships.  Caravans established trade routes starting in Istanbul and travelling ‘around the known world’.  
The Guild aims to portray the lives of people who would have come from different social classes and milieus and contributed to the caravan.  Here is what they write:  “Since we portray a walking caravan, we will focus on that. Caravans were made up of people and pack animals travelling in large groups; up to 20,000 people and 300,000 animals have been recorded in a general caravan made up of merchants and pilgrims ...  Smaller caravans would join together to make larger caravans and provide safety in numbers. Occasionally heavy wagons would be used, but this slowed progress and ‘time is money’, (the expression was already in use). An enormous variety of goods were shipped across Europe, the mid-east and north Africa (the Maghreb).”