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Old 9th May 2005, 06:26 AM   #1
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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Default Sindhi helmet with face guard

Michel,
Last week the thread of fantastic photos headed 'oriental beauties' included a beautiful helmet with face mask with parenthesis and question mark 'Sind'?

In Haider, "Arms & Armour of Muslim India" p.103 this exact helmet is illustrated and credited it National Museum, Krakow. It is identified as noted as Sindhi , late 18th c. Apparantly this type helmet is typical in Sind, with the full metal mask of of course higher quality, and usually a triangular mail flap covering the face.
In "Saladin and the Saracens" by D. Nicolle p.8, I noticed a similar concept helmet in a line drawing with conical shape and a detachable metal face plate, shown as Qipchaq c.12-13th c. (State Historical Museum, Moscow).
It seems that these face covers have earlier associations in 6th century Byzantine examples. I'm sure there are others in other periods and spheres as well, but thought I would share these findings for now.

I wanted to put this on a new thread just for focus.

All best regards,
Jim
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