An Islamic Military Cap

 

By Sayf al Qamar Tarik ibn Abdul

 

Clothing styles and fashions were often diagnostic features of social rank and status in medieval Islam. What one wore reflected who one was or hoped to be. In the complex multi-ethnic communities of medieval Iran, Iraq, Syria, and the Levant, specific items of clothing identified military men. An important article of clothing specific to soldiers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was the tarbush. This hat became diagnostic of profession military men in Muslim society.

The tarbush, or sharbush as it was also called, is a peaked or domed cap with an upturned, fur trimmed brim.[i] The front brim widens to a peak and has a decorative element. Unfortunately, no examples of the tarbush have been found and the best evidence of its existence and use comes from manuscript illustrations and pictorial representations on ceramic ware and metal work items. Because of this fact, there is some uncertainty about the exact shape, decoration, construction and meaning of the hat.

 

The tarbush appears in the twelfth century and is frequently depicted through the mid-thirteenth century. It becomes very uncommon after the fall of the Ayyubid Dynasty to the Mamluks in 1250 CE and appears only once after 1300 CE.[ii] The geographic range of depictions of this distinctive headgear is limited to Anatolia, Syria and the Levant, Iraq, and Iran. Such a limited geographic range, in combination with an abbreviated time span of popularity strongly suggests a Seljuk origin for the tarbush. This is a reasonable conclusion based upon the territorial dimensions of the Seljuk State and its successor states. Furthermore, these appear on rulers in manuscripts known to have been produced in Turkish ruled or influenced regions, such as Ayyubid Mosul in Syria.[iii]

 

The belief that the tarbush is a military cap is readily supported by the contexts of its appearance in art. The tarbush is shown invariably on male figures. The men wearing these hats are typically armed and are quite often actively engaged in martial activities. Rulers also wore the hats. The monarchs and their soldiers wear the peaked, fur trimmed caps while civilians and non-Turks are depicted wearing turbans. This allows for a direct comparison of the identities of figures within the same scene, and such a comparison permits the identification of the tarbush as a Turkish military fashion.

 

The basic form of tarbush is a red, peaked cap with an upturned brim trimmed in black fur and displaying a vaguely triangular, metallic gold panel or plate where the brim widens to a point above the brow. This is by far the single most common color combination and shape of tarbush. Variations is color and shape do, however, occur. A ceramic plate in the Freer Gallery shows dark blue and turquoise caps with tabs at the peak in addition to the more commonly seen red caps.[iv] This plate also shows white front plates, although this could be a technical limitation of the ceramic medium. An Anatolian manuscript illustration shows brow fur trims, a patterned blue cap, and a gold ‘button’ or tab at the peak.[v] The Book of Songs, made at Mosul, Syria, in 1217 CE shows dark green caps.[vi] Other variations in decoration include patterned decoration on the body of the cap, other colors, patterned decoration on the front plate, and alternative shapes for the front plate. Variations in shape occur as well, and these can appear within the same piece of artwork.[vii] The Freer plate shows domed caps with low front plates, ‘buttons’ at the cap’s apex, and rounded and triangular front plates. Figure 1 shows some of these different shapes. An extreme form of tarbush is shown in The Book of Veterinary Information.[viii] This cap has a high, sharp peak set above the brow [Figure 2]. A bowl in the Staatliche Museum in Berlin has a domed cap with a high triangular front plate [Figure 3].[ix] Variant depiction’s of the front plates include oval, triangular and a rounded, ‘mantle-clock’ shapes, in plain or patterned white or gold [Figures 4[x], 5[xi], and 6[xii]]. The white could be representative of silver much like heraldic usage.

As there are no extant examples, the actually construction of the tarbush cannot be known. David Nicolle and Angus McBride conjecture that the hats was constructed of felt segments covered with colored cloth, trimmed with fur and decorated with a tooled and gilded leather plate, and then topped by a silk ‘button’ at the apex of the cap [Figure 7].[xiii] They ascertain that the cap employed segmented construction is supported by what may be a depiction of seams on a cap in a thirteenth century manuscript.[xiv] While Nicolle and McBride’s hypothetical reconstruction is reasonable, alternative constructions are possible. The cap could have been made of cloth without a felt base. It could be entirely of colored felt or dyed leather. The front plate could be tooled, gilded leather as suggested above, or it could also be decorative metalwork or embellished, stiffened cloth. The decoration may be embroidery or damasks and brocades could be employed to cover the stiff material of a front plate. A more extreme, although much less likely, possible construction uses a stiff, woven reed base covered in cloth, felt, or leather. Each of these conjectural methods of construction lies well within the material and technical capabilities of the medieval craftsman.

 

Besides being identified with professional soldiers, the tarbush is also identified with Muslims. While Central Asia provides a large number of similar hats, the use of the tarbush is limited Islamic peoples. Usamah ibn Munqidh notes how some Crusaders readily adopted the material culture of their Middle Eastern foes, but the tarbush was so strongly associated with the Muslim soldiery that it was the one item that Crusaders emphatically refused to wear.[xv]

 

 

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iMedieval Warfare Source Book: Christian Europe and its Neighbours, David Nicolle, Brockhampton Press, London: 1998, 308.

iiShahname, folio 89b, Iran, 1330, Topkapi Library in Topkapi Manuscripts, ed. J.M. Rogers, New York

Graphic Society Books, New York: 1986, 62.

iiiBook of Antidotes, Mosul, c. 1250, MS. AF. 10, Nationalbibliothek, Vienna in Saracen Fans 1050-1250,

Warrior Series, David Nicolle, Osprey Publishing, London: 1994, 52.

ivCeramic plate, Iran, 13th c. # 43.3, Freer Gallery, Washington, DC, in Islam and the Arab World, ed.

Bernard Lewis, Alred A. Knopf, Inc., New York: 1976, 213.

vBook of Ingenious Devices, Anatolia, 1205, A. 3472, Topkapi Library in Topkapi Manuscripts, 37.

viBook of Songs, Mosul, 1217, Millet Kutuphaneis [museum], Istanbul in Islamic Art, revised edition,

World Art Series, David Talbot Rice, Thames and Hudson, New York: 1975, 104.

viiCeramic plate, #43.3, Freer Gallery; Ceramic bowl, Iran, 13th c. #86.227.60, Brooklyn Museum in

Saracen Fans, 22; Maqamat, Iraq, c. 1240, C-23, folio 128 recto, Asiatic Museum, Leningrad in Pages of Perfection: Islamic Paintings and Calligraphyfrom the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersberg, ed. Yuri A. Petrosyan, Art Restoration for Cultural Heritage Foundation, Lugano, Itaaly:  1995, 153.

viiiBook of Veterinary Information, MS. Ahmet III 2115, Topkapi Library in Topkapi Manuscripts, 10.

ixCeramic Bowl, Raqqa, late 12th/early 13th c., Staatliche Museum, Berlin in Saracen Faris, 32.

xCeramic bowl, #86.277.60, Brooklyn Museum.

xiBook of Antidotes, Iraq, 1199, Ms. Ar.2964, folio 5, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris in Saracen Faris, 61.

xiiBook of Antidotes, Mosul, c. 1250, MS. AF.10, folio 1 recto, Nationalbibliothek, Vienna in Arab Painting, Richard Ettinghausen, Rizzoli International Publishing, New York:  1977, 91.

xiiiSaracen Faris, Plate F: 53.

xivMaqamat, Iraq, c. 1240, C-23, folio 128 recto, Asiatic Museum, Lenigrad in Pages of Perfection, 153.

xvAn Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades: Memoirs of Usamah Ibn­Muixiidh, trans. Philip K. Hitti, Princeton University Press, Princeton: 1987, 169; Medieval Warfare Source Book, 286.

 

 

Sayf al Qamar Tank ibn Abdul [Laurel, Pelican] is a 12th century Turkish ghulam and scribe in Saladin’s army.