The calpack, kalpak, or qalpaq is a Turkic high-crowned

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

(usually made of

felt Felt is a textile that is produced by matting, condensing, and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic fiber, acrylic or acrylonitrile or ...

or sheepskin) worn by Turks, Bulgarians, Circassians, Dagestanis, Chechens, Ukrainians, Poles, Russians and throughout

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

and the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

. The kalpak is used to keep the head warm in winter and shade out the sun during summer. There are different kalpaks for different seasons, with kalpaks used in winter being thicker and the ones used in summer being thinner but broader for shading purposes. There are many styles of kalpak. They usually can be folded flat for keeping or carrying when not being worn. The brim can be turned up all the way around. Sometimes there is a cut in the brim so that a two-pointed peak can be formed. Plain white ones are often reserved for festivals and special occasions. Those intended for everyday use may have a black velvet lining. In the Turkic cultures of central Asia, they have a sharp tapering to resemble a mountain, rather than the cyndrical kalpaks of Turkey. The word ''kalpak'' is etymologically Turkic. According to Armenian

lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries. It is divided into two separate academic disciplines: * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionary, dictionaries. * The ...

Sevan Nişanyan Sevan Nişanyan (; born 21 December 1956) is a Turkish-Armenian writer, fugitive and lexicographer. Author of a number of books, Nişanyan was awarded the Ayşe Nur Zarakolu Liberty Award of the Turkish Human Rights Association in 2004 for his con ...

, it means ''felt cap''. According to Turkish Turcologist and

Hasan Eren, it means ''cap made of leather, fur or fabric''. The word ''kalpak'' has passed from Turkish to Bulgarian, Serbian,

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, Hungarian,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Tajik, French,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

and other

Slavic languages The Slavic languages, also known as the Slavonic languages, are Indo-European languages spoken primarily by the Slavs, Slavic peoples and their descendants. They are thought to descend from a proto-language called Proto-Slavic language, Proto- ...

. The oldest informations about Turkic peoples wearing kalpak is found in ancient Chinese sources. Turkic

Mahmud al-Kashgari Mahmud ibn Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari; ; , Мәһмуд Қәшқири; , Махмуд Қашғарий was an 11th-century Kara-Khanid scholar and lexicographer of the Turkic languages from Kashgar. His father, Husayn, was the mayor of ...

wrote in his Turkic dictionary named

Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk The ' (; translated to English as the ''Compendium of the languages of the Turks'') is the first comprehensive dictionary of Turkic languages, compiled between 1072–74 by the Kara-Khanid scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari, who extensively documented t ...

, written in the 11th century, that it was very common for Turks to wear a kalpak. Based on this, it would not be wrong to say that ''kalpak'' is a Turkic origin cap and the national cap of Turks and later passed on to other peoples. The word ''kalpak'' is also a component of the

ethnonym An ethnonym () is a name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (whose name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms, or endonyms (whose name is created and used ...

of a Turkic group of uncertain relation: the " Karakalpak" (literally "black kalpak" in the

Karakalpak language Karakalpak () is a Turkic language spoken by Karakalpaks in Karakalpakstan. It is divided into two dialects, Northeastern Karakalpak and Southwestern Karakalpak. It developed alongside Nogai and neighbouring Kazakh languages, being markedly inf ...

). In Russian, Persian and Polish, the word is also used for

hubcap A hubcap or hub cap is a decorative disk on an automobile wheel that covers at minimum the central portion of the wheel, called the hub. An automobile hubcap is used to cover the wheel hub and the wheel fasteners to reduce the accumulation of ...

(for a car wheel's hub; see also the Wiktionary entry ''

''). File:Müşir Gazi Mustafa Kemal Paşa, Balıkesir, 1923.png, Atatürk wearing a Turkish-style kalpak File:Enver Bey.jpg,

Enver Pasha İsmâil Enver (; ; 23 November 1881 – 4 August 1922), better known as Enver Pasha, was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Turkish people, Turkish military officer, revolutionary, and Istanbul trials of 1919–1920, convicted war criminal who was a p ...

wearing a Turkish kalpak File:Wassilij Wassiljewitsch Wereschtschagin 001.jpg, ''Dervishes'', by

Vereshchagin Vereshchagin () is a Russian masculine surname, its feminine counterpart is Vereshchagina. It was also a name of an old Russian Boyar family. Notable surname bearers * Pavel Vereshchagin, a character from the 1970 Soviet movie ''White Sun of th ...

File:Kazakoyun.jpg, Traditional headgear of unmarried woman in Kazakhstan, Karakalpakstan and Kyrgyzstan File:Kyrgyz Manaschi, Karakol.jpg, A Kyrgyz Manaschi wears a white kalpak for a special occasion File:Cheta luka ivanov.jpg, Cheta of Luka Ivanov, part of IMARO wearing mostly bulgarian kalpaks File:Kazakhs_19th_Century_4.jpg, a special wedding kalpak Saukele of a bride (, , ) File:Hats of Karakalpaks.jpg, Black kalpaks of

Karakalpaks The Karakalpaks or Qaraqalpaqs (; ), are a Kipchak languages, Kipchak-Nogai Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Karakalpakstan in Northwestern Uzbekistan. During the 18th century, they settled in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya a ...

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* {{Uzbek clothing Caps Turkish clothing Russian clothing Turkish words and phrases Ethnic Kyrgyz culture History of Asian clothing Uzbek clothing Turkish inventions

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