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Lot Essay
The inscription around the top reads:
alla fawq (?) al-iqbal (Only beyond(?) prosperity)
The lower band reads:
al-'adil , al'alim , al'amil , al-malik a , al-kamil (the just, the wise, the diligent [officer of] Al-Malik al-Kamil).
The use of the title "al-Malik al-Kamil" would normally be taken to indicate a Mamluk or Mamluk related origin. Such titles were used in Egypt and Syria but not normally by the Aqquyunlu or by the Ottomans. However the lack of a name means it is not possible to draw any real conclusions from this. A similar but longer combination of benedictory verses followed by titles was found on the second of the two helmets sold in these Rooms (see below).
In his discussion of turban helmets, David Alexander points out two basic types, the taller more elegant type and the squatter slightly rounded type (Alexander, D. G.: "Two Aspects of Islamic Arms and Armour", Metropolitan Museum Journal, New York, Vol.18, 1983, pp.97-104). While he suggests that the Aqquyunlu armourers in the Tabriz or Shirvan region were the source of some if not all of the more rounded helmets, there is less evidence of the place of manufacture of the more attenuated ones such as the present example. The only one of this shape whose origins are sure is the oldest helmet of this form to have survived, inscribed with the name of the Ottoman Sultan Orhan Ghazi (1326-60); it was excavated in Bursa.
Many of these helmets must have been taken as booty by the Ottomans at the battle of Otluk Beli in 1473, when the entire Aqqoyonlu baggage train was captured and sent to Istanbul, thereby entering the Ottoman arsenal of St. Irene where they acquired the Arsenal mark. Many pieces entered European collections after 1839, when the new sultan Abdul Mecid ordered the clearing of the arsenal.
A very similar example inscribed with the name of Sultan Ya'qub, son of Uzan Hasan, who ruled from 1478-90, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Rogers Fund 04.3.211; Alexander, op.cit., fig.2, p.99). Like the present example, it has a band of tapering vertical fluting between inscription bands. The arabesques and cursive inscription relate the helmet to book illustration of the region and the period.
Two comparable helmets have been sold in these Rooms in recent years. One, which was very similar indeed in proportion to the present example, but lacked silver inlay, had no upper register of decoration and was in poorer condition was sold 20 April 1999, lot 383. The other, with very well-drawn scrolling vine as seen here, and which also had a powerfully conceived noseguard, was sold 1 October 1999, lot 212.
alla fawq (?) al-iqbal (Only beyond(?) prosperity)
The lower band reads:
al-'adil , al'alim , al'amil , al-malik a , al-kamil (the just, the wise, the diligent [officer of] Al-Malik al-Kamil).
The use of the title "al-Malik al-Kamil" would normally be taken to indicate a Mamluk or Mamluk related origin. Such titles were used in Egypt and Syria but not normally by the Aqquyunlu or by the Ottomans. However the lack of a name means it is not possible to draw any real conclusions from this. A similar but longer combination of benedictory verses followed by titles was found on the second of the two helmets sold in these Rooms (see below).
In his discussion of turban helmets, David Alexander points out two basic types, the taller more elegant type and the squatter slightly rounded type (Alexander, D. G.: "Two Aspects of Islamic Arms and Armour", Metropolitan Museum Journal, New York, Vol.18, 1983, pp.97-104). While he suggests that the Aqquyunlu armourers in the Tabriz or Shirvan region were the source of some if not all of the more rounded helmets, there is less evidence of the place of manufacture of the more attenuated ones such as the present example. The only one of this shape whose origins are sure is the oldest helmet of this form to have survived, inscribed with the name of the Ottoman Sultan Orhan Ghazi (1326-60); it was excavated in Bursa.
Many of these helmets must have been taken as booty by the Ottomans at the battle of Otluk Beli in 1473, when the entire Aqqoyonlu baggage train was captured and sent to Istanbul, thereby entering the Ottoman arsenal of St. Irene where they acquired the Arsenal mark. Many pieces entered European collections after 1839, when the new sultan Abdul Mecid ordered the clearing of the arsenal.
A very similar example inscribed with the name of Sultan Ya'qub, son of Uzan Hasan, who ruled from 1478-90, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Rogers Fund 04.3.211; Alexander, op.cit., fig.2, p.99). Like the present example, it has a band of tapering vertical fluting between inscription bands. The arabesques and cursive inscription relate the helmet to book illustration of the region and the period.
Two comparable helmets have been sold in these Rooms in recent years. One, which was very similar indeed in proportion to the present example, but lacked silver inlay, had no upper register of decoration and was in poorer condition was sold 20 April 1999, lot 383. The other, with very well-drawn scrolling vine as seen here, and which also had a powerfully conceived noseguard, was sold 1 October 1999, lot 212.