Subject: deli raider

Culture: Balkan / Ottoman

Setting: Ottoman empire 15-17thc

Object: winged shield

Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor *

"... Hungarian-style Shield[...] Wood, leather, gesso, polychromy Eastern European, about 1500-1550 [....]

"The shield ... is painted on its exterior with the double-bladed sword of the prophet Muhammad

and on its interior with the Crucifix and instruments of the Passion.

This unusual mix of Islamic and Christian symbols suggests that the shield was used

in a tournament by a Christian warrior dressed in oriental fashion.

In these 'Hungarian style' tournaments, the participants wore Hungarian and Turkish costumes

and used sabers to strike off feathers attached to their opponents' helmets and to the apex of their painted shields.

Even at a time when Turkish armies were a constant threat to eastern Europe,

their costumes and tactics were imitated by their Christian foes." ...

* Medieval Godsends