DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29463#0127
deed, achieve the executioner's axe. Islam required that any sentence
be accepted with humility and serenity.
City craftsmen were united in guilds, which, like those of Europe,
had strict regulations, including statues concerning working condi-
tions and responsibilities. The guilds were associated with religious
brotherhoods, which were led by dervishes. The most powerful were
the guilds of Istanbul, the essential productive organization of the
state. These guilds also played an important role in social and public
life.^ In the second half of the sixteenth century there were about
150 guilds in the Ottoman capital. They participated in state-reli-
gious feasts, in folk festivals and entertainments, and in parades
before the sultan, demonstrating their technical perfection and as-
tonishing imagination.^ Since the time of Mehmed II, the Covered
Bazaar in Istanbul was the center for trade and played a major role
in the economic and financial life of the empire—a role resembling,
somewhat, that of the modern banking and exchange system.
The guilds and professions and their members who contributed
dress and armaments to the court were privileged in their own right
— the weavers, tailors, turbanmakers, armorers, swordmakers, gold-
smiths, jewellers, furriers, haberdashers, embroiderers, and taxider-
mists (who also prepared plumes). The craftsmen in these specialties
achieved the highest level of art, arousing the interest and admira-
tion of foreigners, as well as the desire for imitation. Ottoman cos-
tume became an important element of state culture, denoting the
social status and place in the hierarchy of men. There were regula-
tions that strictly determined each type and style of dress; transgres-
sion was dangerous. Wearing dress not appropriate to one's civil or
military status and rank was severely punished, sometimes in a man-
ner going beyond European norms. For example, a man wearing a
shoe style of a rank higher than his had them removed—together
with his feet. A stiff and elaborate code of dress was taken over by
the Ottomans from the Persian and Byzantine traditions, but the
distant traditions of China were also incorporated. The sultans them-
selves, starting with Orhan, established dress codes. The regulations
multiplied in the times of Mehmed I, Mehmed II, and particularly
under Suleyman the Magnificent, Ahmed III, and Osman III and
came to include more and more people, ranks, functions, and occa-
sions for the wearing of specified dress, such as during day service,
103
be accepted with humility and serenity.
City craftsmen were united in guilds, which, like those of Europe,
had strict regulations, including statues concerning working condi-
tions and responsibilities. The guilds were associated with religious
brotherhoods, which were led by dervishes. The most powerful were
the guilds of Istanbul, the essential productive organization of the
state. These guilds also played an important role in social and public
life.^ In the second half of the sixteenth century there were about
150 guilds in the Ottoman capital. They participated in state-reli-
gious feasts, in folk festivals and entertainments, and in parades
before the sultan, demonstrating their technical perfection and as-
tonishing imagination.^ Since the time of Mehmed II, the Covered
Bazaar in Istanbul was the center for trade and played a major role
in the economic and financial life of the empire—a role resembling,
somewhat, that of the modern banking and exchange system.
The guilds and professions and their members who contributed
dress and armaments to the court were privileged in their own right
— the weavers, tailors, turbanmakers, armorers, swordmakers, gold-
smiths, jewellers, furriers, haberdashers, embroiderers, and taxider-
mists (who also prepared plumes). The craftsmen in these specialties
achieved the highest level of art, arousing the interest and admira-
tion of foreigners, as well as the desire for imitation. Ottoman cos-
tume became an important element of state culture, denoting the
social status and place in the hierarchy of men. There were regula-
tions that strictly determined each type and style of dress; transgres-
sion was dangerous. Wearing dress not appropriate to one's civil or
military status and rank was severely punished, sometimes in a man-
ner going beyond European norms. For example, a man wearing a
shoe style of a rank higher than his had them removed—together
with his feet. A stiff and elaborate code of dress was taken over by
the Ottomans from the Persian and Byzantine traditions, but the
distant traditions of China were also incorporated. The sultans them-
selves, starting with Orhan, established dress codes. The regulations
multiplied in the times of Mehmed I, Mehmed II, and particularly
under Suleyman the Magnificent, Ahmed III, and Osman III and
came to include more and more people, ranks, functions, and occa-
sions for the wearing of specified dress, such as during day service,
103