![]() Selim III was succeeded by Mahmud II (1808-1839), another reformist, but during this time, things still went from bad to worse. We will soon see this broader focus of clothing laws coming into play. 412) While Selim did raise issues of corruption and bribery in devising these laws, his focus was also economic and political, trying to aid Ottoman artisans and so gain the support of the Janissaries. Ultimately, this didn't save him, but it marked a departure from prior clothing laws, which "primarily expressed a concern for morality, social discipline, and order, stressing extravagance and waste on the personal level." (Quataert 1997, pg. This appeal was significant, since the artisan guilds had ties to the Janissaries, who Selim was trying to court with this policy. If they would wear the cloths of our country, local goods would be in demand. But my statesmen wear Indian-made and Iranian-made cloth. I always wear Istanbul-made and Ankara-made cloth. He contrasted himself with the high-ranking members of his government and extravegant aristocrats with his righteous support of local producers. Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) sought to use clothing laws in an attempt to win support for his rule from the artisans and the population at large. ![]() No, not that Muhammad Ali, this Muhammad Ali. By this time, the Empire was in full-blown crisis: a revolt in Serbia (rooted in local backlash to the Janissaries) had started to spin out of control, while Egypt was decisively breaking away from Ottoman control under the rule of Muhammad Ali. Getting back to the Ottoman Empire, let's fast-forward to the reign of Selim III (1789-1807), a reformer who would wind up being deposed and murdered by the Janissaries. This last method would of course be brought back by the Nazis during the Holocaust. This could take the form of a particular form of hat, being restricted to only wearing certain colored garments, and/or yellow cloth badges. Clothing was also used as a religious marker in medieval Europe, as Jews were required to wear distinctive markers to single them out as being Jewish. ![]() In medieval Burgundy, for example, there was a law that restricted the length of the points of shoes worn by commoners to six inches. These sorts of clothing laws were also used to define social status, and were by no means limited to the Ottoman Empire. 28-29) This meant that you could go out onto the street and tell by what anyone was wearing what their religion was, what profession they may have held, and if they were government officials, what their rank and position was. On top of that, clothing was also the most visible physical marker of identity, important in a "society organized along strictly religious lines." (Hanioğlu 2008, pgs. Donald Quataert, whose paper I am citing expansively in this response, notes that this lack of change may have been a sign of "social rigidity", as changes in clothing laws tend to reflect social mobility. The specific regulations encoded by Suleiman the Magnificent, who was also known as kanuni (lawgiver), stayed unchanged until the 1720s (that's about two centuries). Certain colors of headgear were assigned to certain groups, different ranks had different kinds of hat: The Sultan had his own, the Janissaries had their own varieties, depending on rank and roles, among different groups of commoners, and so on. For centuries, clothing in the Ottoman Empire was used as a key means of showing your identity. ![]() The answer to this question is a lot more interesting and complex than you might have expected given that it's about headwear. ![]()
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