1.   Although he is known as gentle, soft-spoken, tolerant and worldly, Iranian President-elect Mohammed Khatami rode to victory in large part because of his black turban.

2.   And unlike Nateq-Noori, who wears a white turban, Khatami wears a black turban, the sign of a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed.

3.   But fighters carrying rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and rifles had exchanged the black turbans of the Taliban for the simple white caps of the Mujahadeen.

4.   But Khatami remains part of that establishment, as signified by the black clerical turban without which he almost certainly would not have been elected.

5.   But the enemy kept coming, changing uniforms from the gray Soviet battle dress to the rags of the mujahedeen to the black turban of the Taliban.

6.   Fadlallah wears black robes and a black turban that signify he is a descendant of the prophet Mohammed.

7.   He himself wears the black turban of a hojatolislam, the second-highest rank within the Shiite Muslim clergy.

8.   Mullah Fazel, a heavy man in a large black turban, appeared unmoved.

9.   The Iranians seemed to defer to a senior cleric in a black turban and flowing robe, the Russians said.

10.   The men still wore the black turbans and robes and long beards of Taliban fighters.