Unknown artist, Thai

Following the example of Muhammad and his companions, men in most Muslim societies have traditionally worn a head covering, especially when praying. This basic requisite has led to the adoption of a wide variety of turbans, hats, and caps—so long as they have no brim that would interfere with a worshipper’s forehead touching the ground during prayer. Some caps might serve as a base for the turban, though men also wear them alone, offering their decoration as a display of devotion and dedication. Mirrors, for example, on the Middle Eastern prayer cap here might be seen to reflect God’s glory and to deflect the evil eye, while the ritual of embroidering the text on the Iranian dervish cap is said to aid in the attainment of salvation.

Other hats, differing in shape from the typical rounded cap, reveal additional layers of meaning related to history and geography. The turban form of the Javanese batik head covering shows an indigenous fabric fashioned to announce the wearer’s faith while keeping him relatively comfortable in a typically humid environment. The Turkish fez, originally imported from North Africa, has a complicated political history: a symbol of Turkish nationalism and modernization under Sultan Mahmud II around 1826, when it largely replaced the turban, it changed to one of Islamic orthodoxy under Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk), who outlawed it in 1925 in favor of Western varieties of hat.