Illustration from

Maqamat of al-Hariri

Bibliothèque nationale de France, manuscript Arabe 5847, 1237AD

Folio 29 Verso: maqama 11 Funeral


Funérailles

A figure on the right may be wearing a mail hauberk. See figure 156a in "The Iconography of a Military Elite: Military Figures on an Early Thirteenth-Century Candlestick (Part II)" by David Nicolle, in Mamlūk Studies Review Vol. 19, 2016



The right-hand figure is referenced as figure 324F in The military technology of classical Islam by D Nicolle
324A to 324G. Manuscript, A - 'Spear of the Governor of Rahba,' B - 'Sermon in a mosque,' C - 'Slaughtering a camel,' D - 'Feast in a tent,' E - 'Mace or staff of a lawyer,' F - 'Soldier at a burial scene,' G - 'Guards of a ruler,' Maqāmāt al Harīrī, 1237 AD, Irāq, Bib. Nat., Ms. 5847, ff. 26r, 84v, 140r, 139v, 29v and 59r, Paris (ICC).
Vol 1, p.175:        A certain amount of confusion could surround mail. Its rings were widely referred to in Arabic as zard, zared or zird, which is a term very close to the sard scales of the dirʿ. There does, however, seem to have been a clear distinction between the two terms from the 10th to 14th centuries (see Terminology). The situation in Persian-speaking areas was simpler, for here the term zirih quite clearly referred to mail.43 The pictorial evidence, some of it very stylized and having to be interpreted with caution, shows that mail hauberks of various shapes, long (Figs. 330, 333, 335, 447, 501, 520, 537, 543, 600, and 639) or short (Figs. 134, 196, 246, 267, 292, 294, 305, 392, 515, 522, 541, 598 and 599), with long (Figs.161, 174, 241, 250, 270, 298, 305, 345, 346, 347, 348, 350, 375, 428, 435, 438, 442, 494, 500, 519, 535, 538, 540, 543, 545A-F and H, and 551B) or short sleeves (Figs. 262, 286, 288, 292, 339, 444, 446, 499, 521, 546A, 551, 601, 606, and 661), some opening down the front (Figs. 324F and 641) and others put on over the head (Figs. 157, 316, 377, 422, 517, and 549), were all used in most regions of Islam in most periods.44

43. Firdawsī, op. cit., pp. 368-369, 427 and 828.
44. Fries, op. cit., pp. 62-63; Anon., The Song of Roland, verse 79; Ibn Isḥag, op. cit., p. 107; Mutanabbi, in Wormhoudt, op. cit., p. 84; Norris, op. cit., pp. 95-96.



55. Internment scene at the graveyard from the Maqāmāt manuscript painted by al-Wāsiṭī in Baghdad in 1237. All of the female mourners are without veils (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, ms arabe 5847, folio 29 verso).
Source: Fig. 55, Arab Dress. From the dawn of Islam to Modern times by Smirna Si

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