Damascus: Tarboosh Polishers

Date: early twentieth century

As she walked around the shops in Damascus, traveler Freya Stark came across a man who polishes tarbooshes under a heavy brass press heated by a primus stove.

Citation: Stark, Freya, Letters from Syria (London: The Travel Book Club, 1944), part of a letter to her mother, dated 17 April 1928, p. 117.