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A Safavid talismanic steel mail Shirt Persia, 17th Century image 1
A Safavid talismanic steel mail Shirt Persia, 17th Century image 2
Lot 305

A Safavid talismanic steel mail Shirt
Persia, 17th Century

10 April 2008, 14:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

£12,000 - £18,000

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A Safavid talismanic steel mail Shirt
Persia, 17th Century

of longer length, composed of rivetted links, each link stamped with an Arabic inscription
79 cm. long

Footnotes

The Arabic inscriptions on the links read: "'Allah, Muhammad, 'Ali, Fatima, Hasan, Husayn".

This lot relates closely to a shirt in previously in the collection of Richard Whittaker, published in Toby Falk (ed.), The Arts of Islam, Geneva, 1985, p. 306, no. 316. In contrast to the usual method of cutting the links from drawn wire, those on this shirt were punched out on a die, then cut and riveted. It would be fair to assume that the die was cut by a coin-maker.

Shirts of this type were designed to provide spiritual as well as physical protection as each link is stamped with the names of God, Muhammad and the ahl al-Kisa, people of the cloak, i.e., Muhammad's children and grandchildren, whom, it is said, he gathered one day under his cloak. A number of other shirts of this type are known (D.G. Alexander, "Talismanic Shirts of Mail").

Additional information