POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Mail hood and shirt تن پوش جنگی

Object No. H6667

This metal mail hood and shirt were handcrafted in 19th-century Persia (Iran), probably under the patronage of a Qajar religious family, by one of the master steel smiths (fouladsaz) from the city of Isfahan, known for the production of this series of crafts since the 15th century. During the Qajar era (1789 -1925), and especially during the reign of King Nasser al-Din (1848-1896), the public rituals and performances related to the martyrdom of the third Shiite Imam (saint), Hoseyn ibn-Ali (626 AD - 680 AD), the Prince of Martyrs, became popular in Iranian society. As a result, a range of handmade ceremonial material culture and ritualistic visual pieties was created, and consequently similar high-quality crafts were adopted for the Persian market. The main body of this metal mail hood and shirt ensemble is made of a 'metal fabric' - interlocking rings that form a strong, flexible, iron mesh jacket (zereh). Each ring is linked through four others, two in the row above it and two below. Similar to other Qajar metal arms and armour in the Powerhouse collection (H4099, A1425, H7905, H4099-2), this ensemble was used by male performers for Taziyeh - a type of public religious theatre depicting scenes of the martyrdom of Imam Hoseyn (Seyed al-Shohada), the grandchild of the Prophet Mohammad - during the month of Moharram in Iran. Dr Pedram Khosronejad, Curator of Persian Arts, 2021