This paper explores a genre of Ottoman Turkish religious literature known as the hilye and its relation to the intellectual, socio-political and cultural context of the Ottoman 17th century. Initially in the late 16th to early 17th century, the hilye (lit: ornament) emerged as versified, eulogistic renditions of the body of the Prophet Muhammad, with the Hilye-i ?erif of Mehmed Hakani (d. 1606) being the first and most representative example. Thereafter during the course of the 17th century, the genre expanded massively in scope to number to also include the bodily traits of the first four caliphs, the Abrahamic prophets and some select Sufis as the subject matter of their mesnevis. Later, in the late 1670s, master calligrapher Hafiz 'Osman (d.1698) took inspiration from the genre and rendered the Prophet Muhammad's hilye into calligraphic panels, hereby inaugurating an even wider culture of icon veneration in the Ottoman lands. The purpose behind both the versified and calligraphic hilye was to keep their copiers, reciters and keepers from ill-fortune, poverty, disease and the torments of hellfire by channeling the divine grace (baraka) embedded in renditions of sacred bodies into the earthly realm. However despite alluding to a time of great uncertainty and calamity, the expansion of the versified and calligraphic hilyes as a genre and their relation to the context of the Ottoman 17th century has remained unexplored. Indeed, whilst the calligraphic panel hilyes have attracted scattered interest from art historians, what has not been examined is whether the uncertainty and anxiety incited by the manifold crises of Ottoman state and society during the 17th century--such as political factionalism and executions at the center, rampant banditry and massive peasant flight from the land, climatic upheaval, monetary crisis and inflation as well as plague epidemics—may have compelled a growing preoccupation with the body in 17th century Ottoman religious thought and practice, as evinced by the growth of the hilye genre. By charting the history of this genre of Ottoman religious and devotional literature and relating it to the context of the 17th century Ottoman Empire, I aim to shed light on how religious thought and practice changed and responded to a time of deep and pervasive imperial crisis during the 17th century. In so doing I want to add to the emerging scholarship on the ‘pietistic turn’ in Ottoman social and political thought in the 17th century.