Subject: ناصر nāṣir 'helper' cavalry

Culture: Sudanese

Setting: Mahdist states, 1880s-1910s

Object: armor = helmet, mail, jibbeh quilted coat

* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery

"Fabric coat (jibbah) and helmet

Sudanese, 19th century

Armour was worn exclusively by cavalry in the Saharan armies, and usually took the form of a quilted coat,

sometimes supplemented by a mail shirt worn over the top."

Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery *

"Armour

Sudanese, 19th century

The helmet, with its spun skull and aventail of split rings,

is a European import, probably destined originally for the guards of the Egyptian Khedive Tawfiq." ...

* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery

"Helmet Sudanese, 19th century Later Sudanese armour production imitated the

style of the largely Mamluk material that survived from an earlier period in armouries."

* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery

"Helmet Mamluk Egyptian, 16th century This is a good example of a three-hundred-year-old helmet remounted for use in

the Sudan in the late 19th century. Armour was very valuable in the Saharan region, and was worn only by elite cavalrymen."

Royal Armouries Museum > War Gallery *

"Coat (jibbah) Sudanese, late 19th century

The term jibbah is most commonly associated with this type of coat, with applied coloured patches.

This style of decoration was adopted from peasant garb, and became a kind of uniform for the Mahdist armies.

From the battle of Omdurman, 1889." ...