Subject: ghulam knight
Culture: Iranian
Setting: Safavid empire, Persia 16-17thc
Object: armor
* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor
"Armors for Man and Horse
Steel, leather
The horseman's armor and the horse bard, composed of elements from different sources, are here associated to provide an image of the heavy cavalry frequently illustrated in Persian miniatures of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The armors are of distinctly Near Eastern type, composed of small steel plates connected by mail. Though the plates were originally polished mirror bright, armors for man and horse were frequently covered with colorful textiles.
"Among the associated pieces, the extremely tall, conical helmet is noteworthy as an example of a type worn in Iran and Russia in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Miniatures usually show a small pennon attached to the long finial. The shield, engraved with large cartouches enclosing floral arabesques, may have originated in fifteenth-century Iran. The ax, with its long, faceted steel shaft and distinctively shaped blade, is typical of those carried by the Mamluks of Egypt and Syria in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The chanfron (defense for the horse's head) is engraved with arabesques of a type suggesting an Ottoman Turkish origin between about 1525 and 1550." ...* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor
"Cuirass (Char Aina)
Steel, gold
Iranian, 17th century
This exceptionally fine cuirass of watered steel is unusual in its use of octagonal plates decorated with fluting. The edges and central bosses are damascened in gold with Koranic inscriptions.
"Iranian and Indian cuirasses of this four-plate construction are known in Persian as char aina, 'four mirrors.' The term suggests the talismanic value of the mirror in repelling evil." ...* Harwood International > Samurai Collection
"Khula-khud helmet
Iran
17th century
Iron, gold" ...
* pc
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