Hats off as the fez fades into history

SAMMY KETZ

Agence France-Presse

Cairo - The fez was once the mark of the elite in the Middle East but today the world's last fez maker believes it is doomed to become a museum- piece.

A portrait of Mohammed al-Tarbushi hangs in the workshop he founded 150 years ago in Khan al-Khalili, Cairo's medieval market. Now it produces few of the hats that gave his family its name. "There are nearly 60 million Egyptians but only six people in the country who still wear the fez," says Mohammed al-Tarbushi, one of the founder's grandsons.

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. "There were 2,000 stores in Egypt and our company alone had 26 branches," said Mr Tarbushi.

The craftsman who mademoulds for the fezzes died 40 years ago, "taking his secret with him". Now the brothers rely on a pyramid-shaped religious cap, the imama. They have sold 20,000 to students and teachers at al-Azhar, Cairo's oldest university and heart of Sunni Islam.

Ataturk ended fez-wearing in Turkey in 1923 and Nasser banned it in Egypt in 1958. "By 1962 no one wore it," Mr Tarbushi said. The brothers' last big order was in the 1960s, when Coco Chanel bought 2,000.