Head Coverings of the Kawasses

 In April 2011 I wrote an article about the

Barett of the Kirchenschweizer.

In Jerusalem you can see something similar:

The kawass (or kavas, chawwas, qawwās, کاواس)

Today kawasses  are men which protect in a symbolic way a Christian procession in Jerusalem.

During the Ottoman empire the kawasses were some kind of:

guards of honour

protection officers (bodyguards)

armed constables or couriers

consular guards in the countries of the eastern Mediterranean

The original Arabic word "qawwās" means bowman.

Kawass of the Ethioppian Orthodox Church

red tarboush - طربوش (fez) with cross on top 

Kawasses in Jerusalem wearing a red tarboush - طربوش (fez)

  

 During a procession of the Armenian Apostolic Church the kawasses often not wear a tarboush - طربوش (fez). The tarboush (fez) would remind them of the Armenian Genocide.
They wear some black hats similar to a Jinnah cap. 

Kawass at the consulate

Foto Hentschel Leipzig Jerusalem 1904

© picture: Flickr

An Arab kawass (an Ottoman Lieutenant assigned to all foreign travellers) seated in a garden of a Jerusalem house with a little boy in his care.