The helmet and breast harness of a Mamluk dignitary represent an outstanding ensemble of the Habsburg collections of weapons and armours. In the inventories of the castle of Ambras, Tyrol, dating back to1593 these objects were assigned erroneously to a “N. King of Cuba in India”. Ch. Beaufort and M. Pfaffenbichler pointed out that it seems that the West Indies were confounded with India. It is possible that this armour came into Habsburg possession via the Portuguese which would explain why its provenience was associated with India. Commerce along the west coast of India under the control of the Portuguese led to conflicts with the Mamluks. The armour could have been a booty from a battle fought between the two powers.
The oriental helmet and the breast harness are made of gold-plated iron. The embossed corpus is covered with decorative etchings of arabesques and Arabic inscriptions consisting of prayers to Allah and verses from the Qur’an.
A pious quotation decorates the comb and sideband of the helmet, reproducing part of Sura 2 and the complete Sura 112. The nose protection of the helmet shows the following signature: “finished by the armourer Ali”. Parts of the armour were attributed to a Mamluk prince because of its similarity to a helmet preserved in the Topkapi Sarayi Museum in Istanbul, namely the helmet of Khairbak, the governor of Aleppo, who rendered Syria in 1517 to Selim I Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
The harness is the most magnificent preserved example of a type of oriental armour going back to the Sasanians (late Persian antiquity). It consists of embossed plates with seven trapezoidal and triangular plates surrounding the circular pectoral.
The method of reinforcing chain armours with metal plates- attributed to David in the Qur’an Suras 21 (verse 80) and 34 (verses 10, 11) - already existed in the 3rd or 4th centuries and was initiated by the Parthians, later adopted by the Sasanians and widely spread in the Near East after the conquest of the Persian Empire by the Arabs.

The shield displayed here together with the armour was added only in 1788. Its bluish corpus is painted with gold varnish and decorated with inscriptions representing religious invocations and blessings written in medallions arranged in a circle.

 

Based on German text by Susanne Tigelhardt

Bibliography:

Beaufort, Christian und Pfaffenbichler, Matthias, Meisterwerke der Hofjagd- und Rüstkammer, Wien, Kunsthistorisches Museum, 2005
Ausstellungskatalog 2006, Die Welt des Orients, Kunsthalle Leoben
Sarre, Friedrich und F. R. Martin, Meisterwerke Muhmmedanischer Kunst, München, 1910
Thomas, Bruno und Gamber, Ortwin, Katalog der Leibrüstkammer, Wien, 1976
Alexander, David, Furusiyya II, Ausstellungskatalog Riyadh, 1996
Nicolle, David, Islamische Waffen, Graz, 1981
Lentz, Thomas W. und. Lowry Glenn D, Timur and the Princely Vision, Washington, 1989
Boeheim, Wendelin, Handbuch der Waffenkunde, Leipzig, 1890
Stöcklein, Hans, Ars Islamica, 1934