African chain mail shirt

[colin henshaw]

I found this chain mail shirt (hauberk), a little while ago. Can anyone help with identification etc ? The links are riveted and there is a leather collar.

I'm thinking its most likely from Northern Nigeria or Cameroon, but I guess Sudan is also a possibility. Maybe early part of the 20th century in date ?

If any forumites can assist with origin, date range or any other information. please do so...

Thanks in advance.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

I found this chain mail shirt (hauberk), a little while ago. Can anyone help with identification etc ? The links are riveted and there is a leather collar.

I'm thinking its most likely from Northern Nigeria or Cameroon, but I guess Sudan is also a possibility. Maybe early part of the 20th century in date ?

If any forumites can assist with origin, date range or any other information. please do so...

Thanks in advance.

Colin, if it is riveted it is not African, it may have ended up there but it almost certainly made elsewere. Can you post some large photos of the links both front side and back (not to close)?

If you can take very large images you could post them on flicker or photobucket etc and post a link,this would help identify where your hauberk originated. Also do you have a weight and length? Is it constructed with alternating rows of solid and riveted links or is it all riveted links. It is hard to tell from the images you posted but it looks like every other row is made from solid links.

If we can identify what type of rivet that was used it would also help identify were it was made (wedge shaped rivets or round rivets).

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Please see http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ican+armourfor more on the subject of African Armour.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Please see http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ican+armourfor more on the subject of African Armour.

Ibrahiim, I can guarantee that this hauberk is not African, could be Ottoman Circassian.

[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by estcrh

Colin, if it is riveted it is not African, it may have ended up there but it almost certainly made elsewere. Can you post some large photos of the links both front side and back (not to close)?

If you can take very large images you could post them on flicker or photobucket etc and post a link,this would help identify where your hauberk originated. Also do you have a weight and length? Is it constructed with alternating rows of solid and riveted links or is it all riveted links. It is hard to tell from the images you posted but it looks like every other row is made from solid links.

If we can identify what type of rivet that was used it would also help identify were it was made (wedge shaped rivets or round rivets).

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.

[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.

[Jim McDougall]

Estcrh, very well explained deductions and assessment!
Thank you for explaining these in detail so we can better examine other examples using these guidelines. Mail is something not particularly in the mainstream in arms and armor study, so that really helps.

Ibrahiim, thank you as well for posting the earlier discussion which helps as comparative examination. While it is determined the mail is probably not African, it helps to know more on the African forms to recognize the differences from others.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Estcrh, very well explained deductions and assessment!
Thank you for explaining these in detail so we can better examine other examples using these guidelines. Mail is something not particularly in the mainstream in arms and armor study, so that really helps.

Ibrahiim, thank you as well for posting the earlier discussion which helps as comparative examination. While it is determined the mail is probably not African, it helps to know more on the African forms to recognize the differences from others.

Thank you Jim ... As we power forward the Library expands immensely and in fact is the main contender for useful cross references and facts alike... We therefor share the front running with specialised publications and indeed the web as THE source for a lot of weaponry details. Library is now hand in hand with this excellent subject and the excellent support given by all participants ...Well done estcrh, Colin et al.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Estcrh, very well explained deductions and assessment!
Thank you for explaining these in detail so we can better examine other examples using these guidelines. Mail is something not particularly in the mainstream in arms and armor study, so that really helps.

Jim, while I am certain that this particular hauberk was not made in Africa I can not rule out entirely that some riveted mail could not have been manufactured in African countries. Currently though I do not know of any research which mentions this.

For anyone who may think that the riveted mail hauberks found in various African countries may have originated in Africa I suggest reading this PDF about the making of mail hauberks in the Sudan, it is very informative. I have posted some significant sections below.

THE MAKING OF MAIL AT OMDURMAN, by A.J. ARKELL, Reprinted from KUSH, vol. IV, pp. 83-5, 1956
http://www.erikds.com/pdf/tmrs_pdf_9.pdf

THE MAKING OF MAIL AT OMDURMAN

When I was Commissioner for Archaeology and Anthropology in the Sudan, Sir
James Mann, the distinguished curator of the Wallace Collection, suggested to me in 1939 that I should try to find out the origin of the suits of mail used in the Sudan, of which a number had been brought to England as trophies from the battlefield of Omdurman. I soon discovered that the expert on Sudanese mail was Hamid Idris, then a venerable figure of well over seventy, but with all his wits about him. He had worked for the Mahdi and his successor Khalifa Abdullahi as silversmith and craftsman, and, unless my memory deceives me, he told me that he had first made mail as a young man under the Egyptian
Government before the Mahdia. In February 1940 I went with him to the Khalifa’s House Museum in Omdurman and examined all the suits of mail there. These are all made up of individually riveted rings, and for that reason Hamid Idris pronounced them as all having been made outside the Sudan and imported into it ‘from the north’, i.e. via Egypt before
1885—some of them possibly many years before 1885. He had no idea where they were made. He told me that in the time of the old Egyptian Government there were very many of these suits of mail in the Sudan, every important tribal chief or melik having 200 to 300 of them.


Although mail had been made in Omdurman during the Mahdia and before, no-one in the Sudan knows how to rivet rings, and Hamid thought that they never had had that knowledge. Sudanese craftsmen had usually used butted rings, which were imported and which they bought by weight from the merchants Kyriazi and Sirkis. About 10 kilograms of rings were needed to make one suit, and a good suit of that kind sold for £E25 in Omdurman, and more in the provinces. Suits of riveted mail fetched no higher price—which shows clearly that by that time mail was worn merely for show and not for serious,defence. There was also a third kind of mail called ‘Huksawi’ after the ill-fated GeneralHicks who fell at Sheikan early in the Mahdia. This was made out of imported split rings.

Subsequently, I made a number of enquiries aimed at ascertaining whether the riveted mail which had been imported into the Sudan ‘ from the north ’ had been made in Egypt,Tripoli, Tunis or elsewhere in North Africa ; but everywhere I drew a blank, and am now of opinion that it was not made anywhere in Africa (or in Europe, where it would have been too expensive for the Sudanese market). I am, therefore, inclined to think that it may
have come from India, for I am told by Sir James Mann that Lawrence of Arabia failed to trace its source anywhere in Syria or Arabia, although he sought hard for it. I hope that this article may encourage someone else to track this riveted mail down to its source. A.J. ARKELL

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Upon close examination it does indeed appear to be made up of rows of alternate solid (welded ?) and riveted links with round rivets.

Collin, just to be sure, can you take a photo like this one but from the inside so I can see the back side of the links. I want to be sure that these are really round riveted and not wedge shaped rivets, the only way to do this is by seeing both sides of the links. The side of the link that is not usually seen is just as important if not more so than the outer side of the link.

Wedge shaped rivets can seem to be round on the front side of the link but.....on the inside of the link the rivet will look like a small rectangle inserted into the link, or if the mail is very worn you will not see any sign of the rivet at all. If it is really round riveted you will see a round rivet head in the inside as well as the outside of the link. Extreem wear will often burnish the inside of the links to the point were there my be no sign that the link was rivetd at all.

[colin henshaw]

Thanks again to estcrh for his detailed and informative responses regarding a possible place and date range of manufacture for the hauberk. I will soon take some more close-up images of the rivets that I hope will help with identification.

From memory, I think I have stored away an old copy of the journal "Sudan Notes and Records", with an article about the making of chain mail at Omdurman. I will see if I can find it.

To try to move forward with the African part of the hauberk's origins ... that it was used in Africa (no doubt a trade item), I think is indicated by the attached collar, which is of typical African leather work. At the moment I feel this is most likely to be Northern Nigeria/Cameroon but I guess Sudan or elsewhere in Africa should also be considered. From the images and examples I have seen, Sudanese hauberks appear to be a bit longer and without a leather collar. But I could be wrong here... can anyone help out on these matters ?

The Pitt Rivers Museum has a good collection of chain mail from around the world, here is an image of a Hausa hauberk from Kano (Nigeria), they have. Note the similar stitching to mine at the top edge of the collar, and the use of leather thongs.

Any further information certainly would be appreciated...

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Thanks again to estcrh for his detailed and informative responses regarding a possible place and date range of manufacture for the hauberk. I will soon take some more close-up images of the rivets that I hope will help with identification.

Colin, if you can take good, detailed images like the one close up that would be great, just from the inside this time, if you could pull back a little bit this time and include a few more links that would be helpful. On these old hauberks you often run into repairs, these links were added at a later date and often did not match the originals, this throws off the identification. It is good to have images from a few scattered areas.

[colin henshaw]

Here are some more close-ups of the links taken from different areas. The first two images are from the inside of the hauberk, the rest from the outside. Perhaps it was turned inside out at one time ?

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

Perhaps it was turned inside out at one time ?

Colin, now that you have my examples and have throughly examined it what is your opinion...round rivets with rivet heads on both sides or wedge riveted with a rivet head on one side and smooth on the other? By the way, if wedge riveted then the rivet heads should be on the outside, otherwise it is inside out.

[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by estcrh

Colin, now that you have my examples and have throughly examined it what is your opinion...round rivets with rivet heads on both sides or wedge riveted with a rivet head on one side and smooth on the other? By the way, if wedge riveted then the rivet heads should be on the outside, otherwise it is inside out.

As you had asked for more images, I was hoping you would expand further on this topic...

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

As you had asked for more images, I was hoping you would expand further on this topic...

I will, I was just hoping you had formed an opinion.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by colin henshaw

As you had asked for more images, I was hoping you would expand further on this topic...

Here is an image of the front and back of the links next to each other, from the information I provided someone should be able to determine if this hauberk is round riveted or wedge riveted......