The word in classical texts for turban is imame, “turban” in French, and “sarik” in Turkish.

The turban was not directly wrapped around the head; it was wrapped onto another head covering. This covering inside the turban is called the kalansuva. The kalansuva was like a cap or a small fez. The Prophet (pbuh) said:

“The thing that separates our clothes from the clothes of the polytheists is the turban which we wrap around our fez”

From this we can understand that the Prophet considered the turban to be a distinctive sign of being Muslim and a form of dress code.

As for the color of the turban, nearly all available documents speak of black turbans. Jabir bin Abdullah (pbuh) quotes:

“The Holy Prophet entered Mecca on the day of victory wearing a black turban.”

However, Prophet Muhammad usually preferred white garments. He tried to bring people’s attention to things that were not so familiar and practiced repeatedly, rather making them focus on behavior that was rarely encountered. For this reason, as a black turban was a headdress not worn everyday, but only at certain times by the Prophet, it caught people’s attention and was reported. It would be more appropriate to evaluate such hadith texts as “He also wore a black turban” rather than “The Holy Prophet always used to wear a black turban”.

There are also documents which state that the Prophet used turbans with different colors when necessary. According to some sources, Prophet Muhammad, after wrapping his turban on his head, would let the ends of it hang down to his shoulders. It is stated that most of his Companions did not do the same.

Prophet Muhammad was very neat in terms of clothing and personal hygiene. He liked to use oil to care for his hair. He would generally use olive oil to do this. When he oiled his hair, he would wrap a piece of cloth around his head to prevent the turban and collar from getting oil on them, and remove the cloth when the oil could no longer soil his other garments.

Anas bin Malik quotes:

“Prophet Muhammad use pieces of cloth very frequently. The pieces of cloth would resemble the clothes of olive oil (or perfume) merchants.”