African chain mail shirt

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Estcrh, thanks for your comments. Here are some more images of the hauberk.

To address your queries :-

Height : 94cm
Width : armpit to armpit : 68cm
Width : ends of sleeve to sleeve : 120cm

Measurements are approximate, with the hauberk laid flat.
Unfortunately, I don't have scales strong enough to weigh the piece, but its heavy !

Upon close examination it does indeed appear to be made up of rows of alternate solid (welded ?) and riveted links with round rivets. The links near the edges of the sleeves and the skirt are smaller and lighter. The rivets seem more noticeable on the inside of the hauberk.

In general the hauberk is of a high standard of workmanship.

Your hauberk is in very good shape and at 94cm / 37in it must be heavy. If you ever get a chance to weight it that would be very helpful to me. To weigh mine I just use a bathroom scale and weigh myself first then I weigh myself while holding the hauberk. I expect yours to be 20+lbs.

Your hauberk is not African, as it has the typical alternating rows of solid links and round riveted links (demi riveted) it is Indo-persian and can be pinned down to the Indian, Persian, Ottoman category. I rule out Indian as their solid links are not usually round, they appear to be cut from strips of sheet metal and then welded.

Your solid links are round and would have been welded so this narrows it down to Ottoman or Persian.

My guess is that your hauberk is Otttoman Circassian, the links are very well formed and quite uniform in shape, which seems to be a characteristic of Circasssian mail from what I have seen based on other examples that were said to be Circassian mail. While this is not an absolute it is the best estimate I can give you with the current information available.

I would say the age range would be from the 17th century to the 19th century, I do know of any way to date it more accurately.