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Turban Helmet

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Turban Helmet

Turban Helmet

Turban Helmet

Turban Helmet

Turban Helmet

Turban Helmet

Turban Helmet

Turban Helmet

Helmet

Helmet

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Turban Helmet

Date:
late 15th century
Culture:
Iranian
Medium:
Steel, engraved and damascened with gold and silver
Dimensions:
Height 11 7/8 in. ( 30.15 cm) Width 9 in. ( 22.86 cm)
Classification:
Helmets
Credit Line:
Rogers Fund, 1904
Accession Number:
04.3.210

This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 379

  • Description

    Helmets of this type are usually called turban helmets because of their large bulbous shape and the flutings that imitate the folds of a turban. Because certain dervish groups wore turbans wound with a prescribed number of folds to represent an important mystical number, it is likely that turban helmets were regarded not merely as armor but also a kind of religious insignia, their very shape marking the wearer as a fighter in the Holy War. Turban helmets, together with mail-and-plate armor of matching decoration, were intended for the heavy cavalry and are recorded as early as the fourteenth century. This example appears to have belonged to the dynasty of the Ak-Koyunlu (White Sheep Turkoman) that ruled northwestern Iran and Anatolia in the fifteenth century. The inscriptions, damascened with gold and silver, glorify temporal rulers, wish the owner well, or give advice on how to attain virtue.

  • Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

    Inscription: Constantinople arsenal "Some European specialists are of the opinion that it indicates swords of Ottoman make, but we meet the same mark on those of Memlûk and Iranian make. In the Selçukname and the Hünername, chronicles of the Selçuk and Ottoman periods resepectively, are described in detail, and reproduced in drawing the crests and marks used by the different Turkish tribes. The above mark belonged to the Oguz tribe, and their crest was a falcon. The Hünername tells us that the Ottoman Turks, being of Oguz descent, adopted the aforesaid mark, and it was used likewise in the Imperial Mews'. It appears therefore that all arms, whether made in Turkey or any other country, on passing into the possession of an Ottoman Sultan were impresses with this mark." This markpasses as (or is thought to be) the Tamgha (seal) of the Sultan Mohammed II called the Conqueror (1451-1481 AD).

  • Provenance

    Ex coll.: de Dino, no. 5

  • See also
    What
    Where
    When
    In the Museum
    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
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