246 Chinese Clay Figures 



cruder defences of Carolingian times. Some authorities maintain that 

 this form of armor was borrowed from the Orient ; and certain it is that 

 its development in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was largely 

 influenced by oriental models. If, however, this form of armor were 

 derived originally from the East, it is a rather remarkable fact that its 

 early appearance in Europe should be traced so clearly to the northern 

 peoples, and that the 'byrnie' (briinne), or shirt of mail, should have 

 become a characteristic part of the equipment of a Norseman. Never- 

 theless it may still have been derived primitively from the East, since 

 it is well known that the early excursions of the Viking carried them 

 well into the Mediterranean, and that even by the eighth century they 

 were well acquainted with many objects of oriental origin." The 

 Arabs and Byzantines have transmitted chain mail to Europe; and a 

 share in this movement may be attributed to the cultural exchanges 

 between East and West during the crusades. 



At the time of Mohammed the Arabs had already adopted the Persian 

 practice of protecting horse and man with armor, the armored horsemen 

 and horses being designated mudjaffaf; that is, clad with the tidjfdf, 

 the Persian felt armor. 1 



When we come to China, the situation is the same as in Europe and 

 in India. Historical evidence is not lacking for the foreign origin of 

 Chinese chain mail. Indeed, the first record alluding to it, the T'ang 

 shu, 2 in its account of K x ang (Sogdiana, Samarkand), states that in the 

 beginning of the period K'ai-yuan (713-741), Samarkand sent to China 

 chain armor (so-tse k x ai) as tribute. 3 The famous poet Tu Fu, who 



1 Compare C. H. Becker (Der Islam, Vol. IV, 1913, p. 311). Becker states 

 that the history of defensive armor in the Islamic world still remains to be written; 

 but his remarks render it sufficiently clear that the origin of these things is to be 

 sought in Persia, and that they were transferred to Europe through the medium of 

 the Arabs and Byzantines. The soldiers of the Byzantine army were protected for 

 the most part by scale armor, though, judging from quite early monuments, ring or 

 chain mail was sometimes used (O. M. Dalton, Byzantine Art and Archaeology, 

 p. 684, Oxford, 191 1 ). 



2 Ch. 221 b, p. 1 b. 



3 A tribute of armor from Samarkand is still recorded in the Ming shi under the 

 year 1392 (see Bretschneider, China Review, Vol. V, p. 123). It can of course be 

 presumed only that the chain mail sent by Samarkand was of Persian origin; but this 

 conclusion is most probable, as the culture of Sogdiana, the capital of which was 

 Samarkand, was thoroughly Iranian. From what was said above on "armor from 

 Sogd" it seems that among the Arabs Sogdiana was regarded as a famous seat of 

 the manufacture of armor. In view of the fact that chain mail is an Iranian import 

 in China it is curious that in the Persian legend of Alexander's expedition to China, 

 the King of China presents to him among many other things a hundred long coats of 

 mail (H. Zotenberg, Histoire des rois des Perses, p. 440). In T'ang shu (Ch. 220, 

 p. 3 b), where an account of the foreign tribes of the east, including Koreans and 

 Tungusians, is given, mention is made of a so kia ("chain cuirass"); the word k'ai 

 is not used, and the question is probably of a leather corselet with rings attached to 

 its surface. 



