hunting for converts 199
servants, who referred to themselves as his humble slaves. These ceremonies
were staged to impress upon participants the great wealth and power of the sul-
tan. The ceremonies also represented and generated bonds between subjects
and sultan linked by cloak or turban.^43
The ritual of distributing turbans and cloaks reaffi rmed the principle thatthe sultan, acting on behalf of Islamic law and Ottoman statute, regulated all
social relations and articulated the religious, social, and political order of Otto-
man society. It marked both his control of the process and his role in conclud-
ing the transformation with a symbolic and public affi rmation of the religious
change of the convert. By distributing the component parts of white turbans
to new Muslims, he dispensed his power as projected through the medium
of garments over space, time, and distance. Turbans and cloaks fl owed from
southern Rumelia to the Commonwealth of Poland, Ukraine to Istanbul. By
repeating this same ritual hundreds of times, he aimed to construct commu-
nity, to provide a means of connecting with his subjects. The intention was to
use the distributions to link the subjects more closely to the sultan and warn
others of his awesome reach and power. It was hoped that the effect of the
ceremony would be that long after he left the hunting grounds near Edirne or
pavilions on the outskirts of Istanbul, the new Muslim was reminded by the
turban received at court that he had become a Muslim. After participating in
the ceremony and receiving its message, he was then free to imagine himself
belonging to a larger community of like Muslim men wearing similar white
turbans across the empire.
The documents ordering the treasurer to bestow new clothing on new Mus-lims list the items that were actually bestowed. The new Muslim received the
obvious sign of conversion, the cloth and base of a white turban. Converts could
also be given leather footwear, linens, trousers, short trousers that reached the
knees, and waistbands. If the convert was an individual whom the Ottomans
viewed as important, he would receive a short, sable fur cloak brocaded with
silver and gold thread. Thus, whereas Covel and sheikhulislams mention only
headgear, converts were also re-dressed from head to toe, inside and out. For
example, a brief document dated September 23, 1 673, reads, “God is everlast-
ing! To the Treasurer of the Palace, may his power and glory be increased! Give
new garments for a new Muslim male and a new Muslim female upon their
arrival at the secretary of the imperial council.”^44
This document would mislead a researcher who read it alone without con-sulting the literary sources of the period. The sultan is not mentioned, but the
imperial council is, and one might therefore assume that the change of reli-
gion occurred before the grand vizier in Istanbul. But people often converted
before the sultan while he was on the hunt or military campaign. Rather than