This is the first message in a thread that I hope more will contribute to.  It is triggered by the interest of some of the members in what I have decided to title “Middle Eastern Heraldry”, instead of “Islamic Heraldry.”  Initially, I was going to start a thread on Islamic Heraldry, but that would have limited it to Ayyoubid, Mameluke, Ottoman and some modern heraldic representations.  Certainly Islamic civilizations have had a major influence on heraldry, even the in the west. However, several thoughts have contributed to my naming the thread: Middle Eastern Heraldry:

1. There were many families, at least in Egypt, who were granted   honors (titles, and possibly arms) by the Papacy and the Austro-Hungarian emperors.

2. There are Christian and Jewish (possibly others) Middle Eastern families who are armigerous.

3. Indian princely heraldry certainly has Islamic influence, but it also has many British characteristics.

4. Tunisian, Algerian, and Moroccan heraldry (I am sure that Nicolas can elaborate on this or debate it) has French influence.

5. Modern Ottoman heraldry, (Istanbul was the seat of the last Muslim Caliph), certainly exhibits how eastern and western principles were equally influential, in the development of Middle Eastern heraldry and thought.

With this reasoning, I hope that members will accept the title of this new thread.

That being said, I would like to ask Guy to post his excellent contribution of Islamic heraldry on the web under this thread.  I have also posted a few bibliographic references on the forum.

Cheers,

Hassan

This is mostly for Denny to assist him in designing his Algerian friend’s arms.  So, here we go -

I have been thinking about your Algerian friend’s request of you to design arms that would show he is a Moslem.

First off, you address his nationality in a nice way by choosing the national colors, but it may not be so evident.  However, there certainly is precedence in Islamic cultures to demonstrate allegiance by flying flags with simple and/or plain colors.  The Algerian colors are indeed, Red White and Green.  Do keep in mind though that my liveries along with hundreds of families (some not even remotely associated with the Middle East) are Argent and Vert.  However, these happen to be the colors of their current national flag (along with the red crescent and star).  However, to someone who is not familiar with the way colors represented dynasties and nations in many Middle Eastern cultures, this may be a very subtle way to allude to his Algerian origins.  In the era of the Deys of Algeria (around 1700s to 1800s) the national colors were red and yellow or Gules and Or, indicated by the flags of the Deys

As far as Muslim iconography/symbolism, I think that is a bit tricky.  The simplest answer is that a crescent with a star between the horns (five, six, seven, eight, or even nine points) have been used as a symbol of Islam.  However, you really have to be careful with that as the crescent and star predate Islam by centuries and are not exclusive to Moslems.

These sites may be helpful:

http://www.compmore.net/~tntr/crescent_stara.html

http://islam.about.com/library/weekly/aa060401a.htm

http://www.rochester.edu/College/REL/symbols/crescent.html

Now, moving on to the scimitar (specially Zulfikar) which was equivalent to Excalibur to western minds.  I see your point, but with the reputation/portrayal of Islam nowadays, I can see why your friend would not want a scimitar, unless inherited in arms, such as the state arms or Beylical arms of the Kingdom of Tunisia (1835 – 1965).  Here are some articles about the symbology of Zulfikar

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/tr-zulf.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zulfiqar

Other than these two symbols, I am not sure of what would help you indicate his Islamic faith, unless of course, he adopts a motto that is in Islamic calligraphy or something like that.  The ancient Nasrid arms of the Kingdom of Granada is a good example of how to even incorporate the motto in the arms itself.  Spanish heraldry continued to incorporate writing on the shield as opposed to British and other western heraldry, where this is not acceptable practice.

I will attach a few Algerian civic and national arms to who you some of the charges you may encounter in Algerian heraldry.  However some of the common charges are:

1. Crescent and decrescent (with and without a star of five points)

2. a variety of boats with sails unfurled

3. Lion passant (Gules lions and Or lions are common) sometime resting its dexter paw on an orb or sphere.

4. Garb or wheatsheaf

5. Cluster of grapes

I would love to hear from Nicolas as he knows quite a bit and has published a book on Algerian civic heraldry.

These are my two cents and I hope that I helped and did not confuse you, Denny.  Best of luck with designing his arms and I can’t wait to see them.

Cheers, Hassan

I wanted to share some photos of Egypt’s state arms and its sovereign family’s arms.  In modern Egyptian heraldry, supporters were not common, however, emblems of office and standards were represented behind the shield. Since Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire (1517-1914 AD), Ottoman emblems of state were incorporated as charges as well as additaments in armorial bearings.  The most significant additament was the Tugh or horse tail standard.  It was a standard of either horse or yak tail, raised on a staff with a brass finial.  It was a standard common among Turkic people, reminiscent of their origins from the steppes of central Asia.  The tugh was used as an emblem of authority, civil and military.  The number of tughs signified the hierarchy within the ranks of the nobility.  A Padishah or Ottoman Sultan displayed 7-9 tughs.  Since the creation of the rank and title of the Khedive of Egypt (1867 - 1914), holders of the title were permitted to display 6 standards behind their escutcheon (as seen in the Khedivial State Arms attached), signifying their pre-eminence among all representatives of the Ottoman Sultan and placing them ahead of the Prime Ministers of the empire in the order of precedence in the Ottoman imperial court. The Ottoman Sadra’zam or Prime Minister was permitted to display 5 standards in front of his home, campaign tent or behind his shield.  Following the Prime Minister, came the Pashas with the rank of Vezir (Minister).  They were allowed 3 tughs.  Following them, came the Beylerbeys (usually a rank and title held by governor generals of important provinces) and the Mirmiran Pashas.  They were permitted to display 2 tughs.  Following them, were the Sanjakbeys and lower ranking Generals who were permitted to display 1 tugh.

I have included 3 different examples of the state arms of the Khedivate of Egypt (1867-1914).  Following that, there is a rendition of the state arms of the Kingdom of Egypt (1922 – 1953).  When Egypt was declared a Kingdom on 15 March 1922, King Fouad I introduced minor modifications to the state arms.  He dropped the horse tail standards and changed the decrescent to a crescent.  He also added the Collar of the Order of Mohamed Ali around the shield.  The most common shape of shield, was that of a roundel, reminiscent of the Mameluke rank (arms or shield).

Following the examples of the state arms, I have added a final image of the familial arms of the sovereign family of Egypt, ensigned with the khedivial crown.

Hassan

Great info Hassan. Thank you.

I’ve already made them and given them to him. He was very generous in compensation and he along with one other person actually paid me more than I had bid the job for - both men showed class like few do. Good men.

I will have to pull it from my disk (I never keep on the hard drive in case of crashes) and then upload it to image shack and show you.

Hey, I can understand the reason to not have a scimitar as you mentioned, but… if it is a part of the culture why not stick with it? I know that it could be tricky in a contemporary sense given the sad state of affairs with the terrorists and not wanting to look like that and all, but I think if it is a part of your culture then show it others ignorance be damned, but then I am, as you’ll find, not lacking in offering my opinion on things and that includes telling others to get a grip when they freak out over a symbol because they misunderstand the symbol… anyway…

I’ll upload and post ASAP. Thanks again for the info…good stuff.

not to completely hijack a thread (but i am going to) how do you attach images, instead of post them to imageshack or whatever. I prefer this method, but can’t remember how to do it.

Here are a couple more.  The first is of the Viceroy Mohamed Said Pasha of Egypt (1854 - 1863).  The famous Egyptian crescent and three five pointed stars appear as a badge above another badge with an ancient Egyptian influence.

The second image is of an oil painting of Khedive Ismail Pasha of Egypt (1863 – 1879).  The gold leafed frame is ensigend with the Khedive’s personal arms.

The third is another one of Khedive Ismail Pasha, but with the minor state arms with what appears to be two representations of the God of the Nile as supporters under the shield!

The fourth image is of the gate of Manial Palace with the personal arms (the residence of the heir presumptive to the throne of Egypt).

The fifth and final image is a close up of the personal arms.

Denny,

I am glad the info was helpful and I hope it was not too late.  I agree with you about your approach, but hey, he will have to live with them and I can kind of understand how people may associate it with violence…thought it is ignorant, but nonetheless a possible perception.

You should see the state arms of the Ottoman Empire, they are "supported" by an amazing collection of weaponry, musical instruments, scales of justice, civil code, Koran…etc.  I will be putting them up soon, hopefully.

Can’t wait to see the images of your designs.

Cheers,

Hassan

Here are three Mameluke blazons I found at the Met:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/enag/ho_17.190.991.htm

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/08/nfe/hod_1972.120.3.htm

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/07/nfe/hob_17.190.985.htm

Hassan

Hello Hassan,

This post was made on another thread and is more at home here on "Heraldry in the Middle East".  So, please pardon my redundant posting.

=========

From our own David Appleton (with images):

http://users.panola.com/AAGHS/manluk.html

Other authors:

http://users.panola.com/AAGHS/EILAND/INTRODUCTION_ISLAMIC_HERALDRY_.HTML

http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~heraldry/page_islam.html

SCA:

Some people are dismissive of the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA), but I’ve found their members to be higly learned in many ancient fields—heraldry especially.

http://www.s-gabriel.org/docs/saracen-heraldry.html

http://www.tirbriste.org/dmir/Heraldry/1307.html

The splendour of a Persian War Camp Fragment from the Shahname of Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi translated by Jerome W. Clinton:  http://www.geocities.com/kaganate/persflags.html

You’ve simply GOT to read this extract of an epic poem which is "..the Persian national epic—telling the story of Persia’s heroes and rulers from the mythical begining to the end of the Sassanids in the 7th century…."  To whet your appetites, here are the heraldry culled from the above poem:
Quote:

...A banner blazoned with the sun—its case Is purple and a golden moon surmounts The staff. ... A banner figured with an elephant;

... Its banner there, a lion worked in gold, Whose center holds a single, shining jewel ...

His standard blazoned with a dragon’s form, And from its tip a golden lion roars." He answered him, "He is a Chinese lord Who’s journeyed from his home to aid the shah." ...A banner with the figure of a wolf… A banner shows the figure of the moon… A lofty staff, tipped with a golden moon, Whose standard bears the figure of a boar….

Islamic heraldic embroidery:
Quote:

The roundel shown here at the beginning of this section, in wools with cotton cording, is a piece of Islamic heraldry, the emblem of a royal cup-bearer.

http://www.bayrose.org/wkneedle/Articles/images/Islamic-horns-lg.jpg

http://www.bayrose.org/wkneedle/Articles/applique.html

Cheers,

—Guy

The readers of this thread may be interested in -

"Saracenic Heraldry: A Survey" by L A Mayer originally published by

Oxford University Press in 1933 and reprinted in 1999.

The book is basically a description of artifacts bearing ‘heraldic’ style emblems (similar to those in the illustrations from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and in Guy Power’s last posting) borne by sultans and emirs in the area of Syria, Palestine and Egypt from the end of the crusades to the Ottoman conquest.

The book is illustrated at the end with 71 plates in black and white.

Regards,

Iain Boyd

For those interested with Algerian civic heraldry, you are invited to visit the following website :

http://www.gaso.fr/

then click on "anciennes dépendances" : the last version of all arms used before 1962 are displayed. As Hassan recalled it, I am, with my friend Jean-Paul Fernon, the author of a civic armorial of French Algeria (1830-1962). We also included a couple of arms created after 1962 by associations of former French Algerian coming from the same place, and willing to remain in contact.

The shields, all made by my friend Jean-Paul Fernon, show a good example of colonial heraldry. This is why you can see so many garbs and grapes, colonial productions par excellence. On the other hand, traditional local productions are scarcely displayed.

This is where the use of statistics is interesting, because it illustrates how heraldry could be used as a way of propaganda.

Another example : most of the ships displayed are Greek or Roman : they were chosen to show that colonialism was a kind of "historical practice" in Algeria, and that the French settlers were the heirs of this antique tradition. So heraldry was used to legitimate French settlements in Algeria.

Every time that we could, we based our work upon original sources (I went to the Archives Nationales, we contacted asssociations of former French Algerians, and, when possible, Algerians willing to make some photos from local monuments, for example). We met many people willing to help us, from France and from Algeria.

Now, we would like to study how these CoA changed (or not) after the independance. I would also like to know more about the traditionnal Berberian, Arabic and Turkish practices in use before the French invaded Algeria, but the information is very difficult to find.

Nicolas

very interesting. i found that there was a lot of mottos, or names of the places, in the arms themselves. also i found it interesting that there were so pany stars of David and crosses. yes, yes i know the Jews were always there and that naturally the Christians were there. but to be honest i thought such symbols would not go over well with the populace for religious reasons. i’m quite surprised.

overall very interesting work and i’ve only made it through Mascara on the list. thanks for posting it.

As far as mottoes are concerned, I have to admit that usually, Algerian civic heraldry was made by French settlers who were not very aware of heraldic rules. Hence the mottoes inside the shield, and many other un-orthodox things.

As for the star of David, it was a symbol shared by both Muslims and Jews for centuries. Emir Abd-el-Kader, an Algerian who fought the French during the XIXth centuries, used this star on his coins, and the emblem of the Dey (the Ottoman authority) of Algiers was probably Vert, a bezant within a star of David, all within a bordure, all Argent.

Nowadays, because of the Israelo-Palestinian conflict, no Muslim would consider the star of David as an islamic symbol. Nevertheless, it has been the case for centuries.

Nicolas

Iain Boyd wrote:

The readers of this thread may be interested in -

"Saracenic Heraldry: A Survey" by L A Mayer originally published by

Oxford University Press in 1933 and reprinted in 1999.

Another book that might be of interest, and which I have found quite useful, is

"Heraldic Symbols, Islamic Insignia and Western Heraldry" by W. Leaf and S. Purcell. 1986.

It has many illustrations, some of the objects which have also been illustrated or mentioned here.

I would like to confirm Sunil’s opinion. I think these two books offer a valuable introduction to islamic heraldry.

My regret is that the authors only study medieval islamic heraldry, and not its early modern and contemporary developments.

Nicolas

Sorry, I have been away and not checking the site for a while (work related).  Now that I am back, I will try to address some of issues brought up by Nicolas Vernot and others.

First off, my opinion of heraldry in Algeria and the Middle East after independence (from the respective colonial powers) is that is digressed and turned into what can be described as psudo-heraldry…at best. :(

Even though the Mamelukes left a wealth of heraldic tradition, the current pan-Arab governments continue to abuse heraldry by choosing, for the most part, awful emblems for civic and state heraldry.  I will try to find some web sites to post. I have many pictures to share, but can’t post them and have to go through the pain of compressing…etc to be able to attach them.

As far as Berber, Arab and Turkish heraldic tradition, I am not aware of a fully developed system.  I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Berbers had a system to Damghas or totemic and heavily stylised emblems and symbols to mark their property.  I will look through my references.

Likewise, the Arabs and the Turks had similar systems of Tamghas or Damgas.  The Turkish Tamghas were very similar to the Polish per-heraldic symbols.  I think they were even called Tamghas in Poland? Again, I have some examples to share, but files are too big to attach.

Nicolas, you are absolutely correct about the use of the Star of David.  It is as widely used in the Islamic Tradition as it is in the Jewish one.  If anything, the dissociation of the Muslims from it speaks to the current generations’ common ignorance and lack of appreciation of their Islamic heritage.  It is also a result of the current political situation, coupled with pure ignorance.

In fact, the Ottoman Admiral Kheir-ed-Din Barbarossa’s banner had the Star of David prominently displayed as a charge along with the Zulfikar sword and the hand of Fatima, along with some verses from the Qur’an (Koran).

"Khier-ed-Din and his brother Aruj, the Barbarossa brothers were among the most famous pirates of their day, and now are the best known of the Barbary corsairs. Kheir-ed-Din rose to become regent of Algiers and an Admiral of the Ottoman navy. His standard, which adorned his tomb for centuries was made either during his lifetime or very shortly afterwards. It is now on display in the Navy Museum of Istanbul."

More about the banner can be found here:

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/tr-zulf.html

This is just one example of many where the Star of David was used as a common charge in Islamic heraldry.