198 honored by the glory of islam
signals celebration of the religious change of Christians and Jews and their
sacred geographies.
Because sumptuary hierarchies distinguished Muslims from members of
other religions, changing the body by dressing in new clothing was fundamen-
tal to transforming Christians and Jews into Muslims. “The Statute of the New
Muslim” does not mention what type of clothing would be crucial in the trans-
formation of a Christian or Jew, but legal opinions from the leading Muslim
religious authorities concerning valid means of conversion demonstrate how a
mere change of headgear could be the fi rst step in causing a Christian or Jew to
become a Muslim. A turban of white cloth served as a mark of religious affi lia-
tion. Three legal opinions from late seventeenth-century Sheikhulislam Yahya
Efendi Minkarizade emphasize the central role it played in the conversion of a
Christian or Jewish man to Islam:
Question: If a Christian or Jew should wear a white turban on his
head and henceforth say, “I became a Muslim,” is his or her conver-
sion to Islam considered valid? Answer: It is.
Question: A Christian or Jew wears a white turban on his head. After
he became completely embellished by Islam, when two Muslims ask,
“what are you?” if he should say, “I am a Muslim,” is his conversion
to Islam considered valid? Answer: It is.
Question: When a Christian or Jew wears a white turban on his head
he is asked, “why did you wear it, have you become a Muslim?” If he
should say, “I have been a Muslim for a long time,” is his conversion
to Islam considered valid? Answer: It is.^40
Therefore, a Christian or Jew could change his status to Muslim when he wore
a white turban, a good type of muslin used for a turban, or a type of high head-
gear with a cotton interior over which a turban is wrapped, and then declared
himself to be a Muslim.^41 An indication of the trend arises from the fact that
Rycaut included the illustration of an unadorned white turban of a convert
in his history. It is most likely that converts also recited the Muslim credo in
Arabic, before two Muslims, declaring that there is no God save God and that
Muhammad is God’s messenger.
Commoners who appeared at court to convert removed their former dress
and donned garments of Muslims to symbolize their passage into the em-
pire’s privileged religion. The process of conversion was thus in part garment-
centered. The sultan inscribed his authority on the symbolic surfaces of bodies
when he cloaked Christians and Jews in Muslim dress at his court.^42 It was
an elaborate performance of supplication rewarded by a display of royal be-
nevolence. Petitions depicted the sultan as the benefactor to his supplicating