m756

Hi Mamluk askari second half ijth century Mosiem nobles were morę concerned with civilian fashion and appearance than their Frankish counterparts, and consequently their armour was usually hidden beneath a robę; the type of robę illustrated by figures H i, H2 and H3 indicated that the wearer was a military man. The mamluk illustrated here has the typical coat, boots, belt and arms of the i2th and i3th centuries, but the all-covering mail hood, over some other form of head defence, dates him to the second half of the igth century; Seljuk head-dresses were freąuently decorated with ribbons or peregrine falcon wings.

He also carries a smali shield and would have a javelin. The quiver could hołd 25—30 arrows.

H2 Syrian amir 12th-iyth centuries Another form of apparel, popular amongst Syrian amirs in the I2th century, was the brigandine, in which the knee-length mail hauberk was covered by a rich fabric (silk is shown here) and padded with linen waste. Sometimes the mail corselet formed an inner lining to such a coat. Such armours were very difficult to distinguish from civilian clothing (except for the wearer!), and the Frankish chroniclers of the crusades often failed to recognize the garments as armour, referring to the Saracens as being unarmoured. This type of body defence was not popular in Egypt until the Mamluks came to power. Mail hose are not shown in any known

The stone glacis and main gateway of the massive Aleppo citadel. These parts were built in 1203-4 by the Ayyubid Malik az-Zahir; the remainder dates from c. 1292, when rebuilding was begun following the destruction of most of the citadel by the Mongols in 1260.