Elaborate discs were worn as women’s head ornaments in towns and villages throughout the Ottoman Empire. They were attached to the top of a cap or fez, and often had pendants hanging down from the rim. The details varied from place to place.

This example was bought for the Museum for five shillings and six pence at the International Exhibition, London, 1872 as part of a large quantity of traditional Syrian jewellery. The addition of a pendant in the centre is unusual. If it were separated from the disc it would probably be considered as part of a plait ornament, but the provider of this jewellery was very careful to record the local name and usage for every piece, and there is no reason to think that such pendants were not worn like this in the 19th century. Its name was given as ‘Korrs tarbooshooger’, meaning the kurs, or disc, worn with a tarboosh, the Egyptian name for a fez. In the Balkans and Anatolia the Turkish name tepelik was more common for this type of head ornament.