Subject: beylerbey commander of sipahi knights
Culture: Ottoman Turk
Setting: imperial warfare, eastern Europe / Middle East 16-17thc
Object: armor
Helmet
* Nicolle/McBride 1983 p23
"The so-called turban helmet, which may have been worn over a separate padded arming cap, reached its full development in the 15th century. Its full mail aventail protecting the face as well as the neck was typical of an army in which archery predominated. Other small helmets with integral linings tended to be similarly tall and it was from these that the Ottoman çiçak developed. It was, in turn, from this that German zischägge and English 'lobster-tailed pot' helmets evolved in the 16th and 17th centuries."
* Elgood 2009 p311
"Shishak, schischak (Turkish): The word is probably derived from the Arabic di sagah or the Persian zi shagah, both meaning pointed. It refers to a helmet with a hemispherical bowl and a pointed skull, a laminated neck guard, ear flaps, a peak and a flat nasal guard. It has its origin in the caps worn in Central Asia which were made of cloth or hide and occasionally bronze. It was used by the Ottoman armies in their Balkan campaigns in the late 15th and 16th centuries, particularly by the Spahis. The helmet was copied in the German-speaking world where it was transliterated as Zischägge, and was popular in Europe in the second half of the 16th century and the first half of the 17th."
Body Armor
* Nicolle/McBride 1983 p23
"The korazin was a 16th-century sipahi armour whose name strongly suggests European origins. This korazin was, however, a distinctively Ottoman protection consisting of large steel plates connected by mail to form an exceptionally supple armour. The zirh mail shirt, kolluk vambrace and kalkan shield were still used by 17th-century cavalry, as was horse-armour."
* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor
"[...] Armors with circular breastplates appeared in the Middle East in the late fifteenth century and were used by the Ottoman heavy cavalry throughout the sixteenth century."
* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery
"[....] In Turkey, mail and plate armours were replaced during the 16th century by plate armours (often called 'pot-lids') which were worn over mail shirts."
