Hello, fellow forumites.
I've just returned from a one week trip to Istanbul. Among the many great things I saw during this week were the arms and armour collections of the Topkapi palace and the turkish military museum.

And the best thing was... they allow you to take pictures. :)

Thought I'd share a few of the impressions ( and of the close to 300 pics ) with you. Please excuse if I do not always remember the exact descriptions of the Items i photographed.

( Edited because of typos )

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Several gifts made to Sultans through the ages. 15th century Romanian longsword, a No-Dachi and an Indian made shield with mother of pearl inlay.

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Ceremonial greatswords and Samurai armour ( also gifts )

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( Ceremonial ? ) Mameluk halberd heads, 15th - 16 th century

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Turkish 16th century sword. Made for Sultan Süleyman the magnificient

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The "European helmets"-room in the Turkish military museum.

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Turkish mail shirt ( I think 15th century )

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Several Yataghans ( turkish, 19th century )

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Hollow ground knife presented to Sultan Abdülhamid the second, 19th century

Nice pictures!
One thing I've been wondering about; Do they have any byzantine stuff?
It strikes me that i have yet to see a actual picture of a spathion...

Thanks for sharing the pictures, you lucky guy. :)

The Askeri Museum is one of the places I've always wanted to visit, but never had the time or money to do so. They have an excellent collection of 15th-16th century Mamluk armour, did you get any pics of those?

And also i remember they have some splendid late 13th century-early 14th century Turkish helmets, did you manage to get a photo of those?

Thanks again for showing us the pics.

Is Istanbul anywhere near Constantinople? :mad:

The top sword in the second photo with what looks like a finger-ring - is that a type XIX hand-and-a half? I really like the look of that one.

Micha Hofmann said
I've just taken a closer look. It does not seem to be a finger ring. To me it rather looks like something attached to the crossguard with wire, perhaps a museum label. I hope the picture below shows this a little more clearly.


That finger ring was just wishful thinking on my part. It isn't a XIX either. It still is an extermely fine looking sword.

As for Oakeshott XIX's, I read that some swords of that type, originally deposited in the Alexandrian Arsenal in Egypt, made their way to a museum in istanbul, maybe this one.

Thanks Micha, I look forwards to seeing any pictures you may have.

BTW, have you considered uploading some of your pics to the Museum Photographs album on this site? There is no album for the Askeri Museum in Istanbul, yet... :)


Roger,

When the Ottoman Turks conquered Egypt in 1517 they shipped loads of stuff back to Istanbul as loot, including vast quantities of armour and weapons. That is why the Askeri Museum has a lot of Mamluk equipment. Any weapons in the Alexandria arsenal would also have been sent to Istanbul.

Hisham,

I've looked through all of my armour pics and must admit I'm not sure, which pictures show mamluk armour and which just Ottoman / persian protective gear.

The only ones of which I'm relatively sure are these two greaves from the Askeri and those two sets of armour from the Topkapi palace. Since I'm quite tired by now I'll post these before I go to sleep and add some of the other pics tomorrow.

Opening a museum photograph album sounds like a very good idea.
I guess, I'll take a look at how it's done and then start editing and adding all of the pics during next week, when I have the time ( my holidays end today ).

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2 Sets of armour, Topkapi palace.

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The same sets, shown from the other side

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Mameluk greave, 15th century from the Askeri Müze

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Dito

Thanks for the photos, Micha. Some of those pictures were of particularly good quality - often difficult in a museum setting. It is great to be able to travel vicariously through people on this site like you (and, recently, Manouchehr Khorasani in this thread).

Thank you very much for sharing these pictures. Beautiful indeed.

Kind regards

Manouchehr

Thanks Micha, I think at least one of the armours in the first picture is Mamluk, because it is very similar to this one.

Thanks for the pictures of the cuisses, I think the Askeri Muze need to check their labeling though. :D

Micha, did you take any pics of Kazāghands or non-sword weapons (axes, maces, flails, hammers, polearms etc)?

Thanks

Danny

Great pictures once again Micha, thanks for sharing them.