Several different forms of turbans are represented in some of the engravings which illustrate this work. The Muslims are distinguished by the colours of their turbans from the Copts and the Jews, who (as well as other subjects of the Turkish Sultán who are not Muslims) wear black, blue, grey, or light-brown turbans, and generally dull-coloured dresses. The distinction of sects, families, dynasties, etc., among the Muslim Arabs, by the colour of the turban and other articles of dress, is of very early origin. When the Imám Ibráheem Ibn-Mohammad, asserting his pretensions to the dignity of Khaleefeh,[63] was put to death by the Umawee Khaleefeh Marwán, many persons of the family of El-’Abbás assumed black clothing in testimony of their sorrow for his fate; and hence the black dress and turban (which latter is now characteristic, almost solely, of Christian and Jewish tributaries to the Osmánlee, or Turkish, Sultán) became the distinguishing costume of the Abbásee Khaleefehs, and of their officers. When an officer under this dynasty was disgraced, he was made to wear a white dress. White was adopted by the false prophet El-Mukanna’, to distinguish his party from the ’Abbásees; and the Fawátim of Egypt (or Khaleefehs of the race of Fátimeh), as rivals of the ’Abbásees, wore a white costume. El-Melik El-Ashraf Shaabán, a Sultán of Egypt (who reigned from the year of the Flight 764 to 778, or A.D. 1362 to 1376), was the first who ordered the “shereefs” to distinguish themselves by the green turban and dress. Some darweeshes of the sect of the Rifá’ees, and a few, but very few, other Muslims, wear a turban of black woollen stuff, or of a very deep olive-coloured (almost black) muslin; but that of the Copts, Jews, etc., is generally of black or blue muslin, or linen. There are not many different _forms_ of turbans now worn in Egypt: that worn by most of the servants is very formal. The kind common among the middle and higher classes of the tradesmen and other citizens of the metropolis and large towns is also very formal, but less so than that just before alluded to. The Turkish turban worn in Egypt is of a more elegant mode. The Syrian is distinguished by its width. The ’Ulama, and men of religion and letters in general, used to wear, as some do still, one particularly wide and formal, called a “mukleh.” The turban is much respected. In the houses of the more wealthy classes, there is usually a chair on which it is placed at night. This is often sent with the furniture of a bride, as it is common for a lady to have one upon which to place her head-dress. This kind of chair is never used for any other purpose. As an instance of the respect paid to the turban, one of my friends mentioned to me that an ’álim[64] being thrown off his donkey in a street of this city, his mukleh fell off, and rolled along several yards, whereupon the passengers ran after it, crying, “Lift up the crown of El-Islám!” while