Early Mail Armour Shirt Turkish or Mamluk

An early middle-eastern coat of mail armour. Short-sleeved, long skirts split to the crotch for horseriding, the neck with a short opening and raised collar. The mail to the upper section of medium weight rivetted steel rings, the lower skirts comprised of larger flat rings stamped to all faces with various designs of interlaced designs, concentric rings, and dotted decoration. The shape of this coat is typical of Mamluk armours, and was also adopted with mailcoats of the Sudan and North Africa. The lower sections of mail are certainly of 14th/15th century Mamluk origin, and the upper rounded cross-section could also be of similar Mamluk/Turkic origin or of North African manufacture of a contemporary or of a later date. Armours incorporating elements of early Turkish or Mamluk pieces were not unknown amongst the Sudanese armies of the 19th century. A rare and interesting example. Middle East