Introduction

As De Busbecq noted in his Turkish Letters, the types of clothing worn at the court of Constantinople were very different from those in the Holy Roman Empire. Clothing and costume distinguished the people of the Ottoman Empire from those of other geographical areas in many early printed images produced in German-speaking areas of the Holy Roman Empire. The nature of the Islamic Ottoman Turk depicted as a distinct identity and culture separate from the people of Christian Europe could be seen in a variety of costume images from the sixteenth century. Furthermore, Turkish figures could be compared to the peoples of the whole world within sixteenth-century costume books, which were conceived in a similar manner to geographies, or encyclopaedias of the time. The fascination with costume in sixteenth-century Christian Europe was part of an overall interest in people, customs and clothing of the world, including the inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire, their culture and their religion. Turks might be depicted as elegant courtiers, quite distinct from the menacing military enemies and Islamic infidels explored in earlier chapters, further highlighting the complex relationship between the Ottoman and Holy Roman empires.