The Sword and the Red Hat: the Dress of Jewish Physicians Throughout the Ottoman

The Jewish sources that describe the non-medical dress and accessories of physicians are few. The current article focuses on the attire of Jewish physicians in the Ottoman Empire in the 16th-19th centuries. Two major issues regarding clothing items worn by Ottoman Jewish physicians are conspicuous in the halakhic historical literature: the hat worn by physicians and the practice of carrying a sword. Written testimonies and illustrations indicate that unlike other Jewish men who wore a yellow hat, Jewish physicians wore a red or blue hat, colors considered more prestigious. The elongated hat they wore was, however, shaped differently than that of Muslim physicians such that they could be discerned from their colleagues.