[Ruel A. Macaraeg]

[Nadeem Ahmad]

Thank you all for the comments! :-) I was going for nobility. Nowhere near enough gold for a King ;-)

Ruel Macaraeg - that is brilliant! I love the helmet and those maces too (are they originals from Qajar times?) ...! Great to see more Persian stuff out there :-)
I think there is some argument for a chahar-aina without maille underneath. But in those cases they are often showing on top of a short-sleeved coat, and bazubands.

[Ruel A. Macaraeg]

Thank you Nadeem! I suppose you and I must bear the burden of representing the mighty Persian tradition on myArmoury until more interest develops. I'd love to see your kit in person someday! It's truly amazing, and I hope you'll post even more photos of it in action.

I agree with your observations -- I have the bazubands, but have not learned yet how to attach them in order to make them fit. I might end up just sewing them directly onto the coat, as is sometimes seen with bazubands/dastana on examples from the nearby Mughals and Rajputs. I can't verify the age of the maces, but they look consistent with originals I've seen in museums: http://www.forensicfashion.com/1786QajarCavalryMace.html

I had two reasons for using this thick coat instead of a lighter robe: One was that, as I understand it, many of these cavalrymen were Turkmen or Turkic-influenced Persiains, and there's some evidence that Central Asian Turks continued to wear heavy quilted coats into the 19th century. The other was more practical -- I needed to pad out the space between the armor and me. Originally this coat was intended for another costume, but those factors made using it hear too convenient to pass up. I have another, roughly identical one that I use with my Crimean Tatar kit -- again, the helmet is probably of Persian (Safavid) origin:
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1571CrimeanGua...Scarb.html


Still though, I'm awed that you made your Sassanid yourself! I simply bought my pieces and made the most minor adjustments; I can't imagine the amount of work that must have gone into your kit, and you are rightly proud to show it off.

[Nadeem Ahmad]

Thank you, I will be riding at the parade at Chester Roman Festival this weekend. If you are nearby you are welcome to come, although I suspect there's a large body of water between us! :-(
I would love to see yours in person sometime too!

And, FWIW, I didn't actually make most of the Sassanian kit, all the leatherwork, belts, etc and lamellar I did but the rest was bought. The helmet and the sword are by Viktor Berbekucz whose name has cropped up in another recent thread.

Cool lamellar and masked helmet! :-)

[Ruel A. Macaraeg]

Ah yes, I was going to ask if you had plans to wear it to any events -- something like that deserves more exposure! Have you thought about writing an article describing your reconstruction process, say for a publication like Ancient Warfare or Skirmish?

Your helmet should definitely put to rest any questions about Berbekucz's ability talents! The texturing is beautiful. And you should be proud of the leatherwork too -- it's still much more effort than I've put into any of my costumes.

Unfortunately, you are right about me being far away, but I do have plans to attend the Medieval Studies Conference in Leeds in the near future (the Texas Medieval Association hosts a session there, and I'm the attorney pro bono for that group), so perhaps meeting in person isn't out of the question. I've had on my long term list of costume projects a Sassanid 'pushtighban' armor (the one with the face mask & helmet wings), so with luck we can someday ride together and harrass the Roman re-enactors.

[Nadeem Ahmad]

[Ruel A. Macaraeg]

Not a bad habit at all! I have trouble simply learning to do things in the first place.

It's fantastic that you have a friend at Skirmish -- that should definitely facilitate writing things. I've been tempted to submit something to them, but it seems they give priority to reenactment groups -- and as I've complained of before, there's almost nobody local to me who wants to do this sort of stuff. My "costume buddies" are all girls -- dancers and models who like to play dress-up -- yet even they tend to not to be interested in doing serious academic history.

I've got to get some work done tonight, but let me message you tomorrow and we can talk more. Maybe we can think of a way to get our armors published despite these hurdles.

[Joshua McGee]

[Ruel A. Macaraeg]

Joshua-
I'm in DFW. Too bad we didn't connect earlier, or we might've had the chance to meet up at Scarborough Renaissance Festival! Unfortunately the season ended last weekend.

Despite its presumed setting in Henrician Tudor England, hardly anyone observes historical accuracy there, so it's a good several weeks in which to try out various kits. I at least try to keep to reasonably historical ones, unlike the numerous otaku, steampunks, etc. who infest the place.

Cf. Hans Holbein, 1538: http://www.forensicfashion.com/1538GermanJesterContextPeriod.html

[Joshua McGee]

I'm actually from DFW originally and have been to Scarborough many times, went to opening weekend this year even. You're right that it isn't exactly the pinnacle of authenticity, but there is a certain niceness to it! I like it better than TRF, but I'll probably attend that this year too.

[Tom Carr]

I should have my Riever kit up and running for next years Faire. Been piecing things together and have a few things in transit. I'll take a picture when I get them in.

[Boris R.]

[Nadeem Ahmad]

[Ruel A. Macaraeg]

Nadeem --
You and I think alike even more than I realized! I have also used Ebay chapans as all-purpose coats, since they have a basic cut and decorative style that fit across a wide range of cultures and time periods. There's an obvious reason they're so historically flexible, since Turkic cavalry made a heavy contribution to martial traditions from Eastern Europe through the Middle East to India. I have a half dozen which I use (or plan to use) with various costumes, including these:
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1740MughalNawab.html
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1751RajputNoble.html



Yours, as Boris said, looks both authentic and quite radiant placed with your armor.


Joshua --
Plan for TRF on the second weekend -- Oct.12-13. That's when I'm going, because I'll be in Houston already for the Texas Medieval Association conference. In fact, I invite you to come there too if you want, and even to present a paper if you're so inclined.

[Joshua McGee]

[Ruel A. Macaraeg]

Really? You may be just who I've been looking for. Over the past many years I've proposed creating some permanent sessions within the conference devoted to military history, WMA, and armed fashion, but without a core of people to establish continuity I've been relatively unsuccessful. I alone can't carry an entire session, but two people is enough to stabilize a three-presentation session (one hour, three 20-min. talks). With two, it's always possible to fit one of the "orphan" submissions in and make a full panel. And once we establish that continuity, we can start doing the really important stuff -- publishing proceedings to preserve our talks.

Here's the link to TEMA's conference and call for papers: http://texasmedieval.org/
There's still plenty of time to submit a proposal (they usually take 'em through August). I've already submitted one about the Spanish Reconquista (since this year's theme commemorates the 800th anniversary of Las Navas de Tolosa, and there's already supposed to be a roundtable for it), but maybe we could get a new session going on armor/costume reconstruction.

[Nadeem Ahmad]

Here is a photo from Chester Roman Festival, just gone. The golden velvet thing you can see by my right leg is an unstrung C-shaped bow case. The overcoat hides the quiver and sword though!

Photo courtesy of my friend Dale Miles, who was busy all day taking photos of all the guys at the festival. I'll shortly be putting more photos on our Facebook, website, and blogs.



The horse tack is probably justifiable, although not 100%. I will start work on some horse tack soon. The lance was also borrowed and a little too light, but the banner is mine. And was better than nothing :-)

I'm also going to get a BIG drafsh - made of leather with gem (glass) and gold (plated brass) studs - eventually!

Ruel - wow, you have lots of stuff! How are the bazubands? I have often wondered about straightening the arm in them as it seems rather uncomfortable to do so.

[William P]

oh...
my...
goodness....

nadeem. wow.. that horse and lance did just the trick to make the whole ensemble look absolutely magnificent. when before it was still amazing

[James Anderson III]

At VA Renn Fest a couple weeks ago. A group I'm in did a demo on combat with the longsword, and I did a short part on defeating armored opponents with the longsword:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/470063_10150934014022372_504837371_9988864_1390289613_o.jpg

At this point I had been in harness almost 6 hours, with low 90* temps, and plenty of humidity. Pardon the belt pouch, it's a cheapie starter that I got so I had somewhere for my wallet & phone. I had also forgone the helmet at this point. It was the first 'trip' out with the harness, so I have some things to tweak and improve. Fits great, considering it was made for someone else.

[Ruel A. Macaraeg]