Battleaxes and maces are also found, though these were often mere symbols of command and high position. The former display not only inlay, but also in many cases engraved relief and even filigree work. The heads of the maces were often made of rock crystal, but more frequently were cast solid, in a smooth pear-shape, with grooves or bosses, richly inlaid. Shields were round with a boss in the centre : in Egypt under the Mamelukes they were of inlaid iron, elsewhere generally of leather, with painted lacquer surface.
The armour, of Sassanian origin, consisted of a mail shirt, arm pieces and greaves, a round breastplate, and a pointed helmet consisting of several spangles riveted together. Not until a late period did a coat of four plates (char-aina), and even a cuirass in the Spanish manner, become common. From the i5th century onwards the helmet was made in one piece, though there were in addition a number of movable parts such as nosepieces, cheek pieces, neckpieces, etc. The decoration, however—grooves or medallions between radiating ribs on a broad frontlet—betrays the original construction. The earlier pieces (15th century) were broad and protuberant, and came so low down over the forehead that eye-notches were necessary, the reason for this shape being that the turban was worn under the helmet; the later examples fitted closely, and were pointed or hemispherical with spikes at tached, nosepieces and crests. The usual ornamentation in the early helmets, most of which are ascribed to western Turkistan, con sists of silver-wire inlay; later, in Persia, it is generally iron engraving, sometimes combined with inlaid work; and in the grooved Ottoman storm helmets, black etching. An offshoot of the last-named is the "Zischagge," of ten richly worked, which was used in the 17th century in Hungary, Poland, and even Germany.
iers of China, and in the later thrusts of the Turks and Mongols it also overran the area of the Arabian civilisation ; and beside and behind it came the peaceful influence of the Far East. Thus in its early period Mohammedan art continues the assimilation of Hellenistic and ancient Oriental motifs begun by the later Per sians, and from the 'Abbasid era it falls almost wholly under the tradition of the Sassanian empire. With the rise of the Turkish dynasties the nomad character becomes increasingly marked, and from the Seljuk period onwards the influence of Eastern Asia grows in strength, particularly from the Mongol to the Safawid period. Meanwhile Islam fused all these influences into a com pletely individual abstract style, which reached its zenith, artis tically and technically, between the loth and 16th centuries. Thereafter decadence begins, veiled in the 17th century by ex travagance of external splendour, but betrayed by a tendency towards some degree of naturalism and an increase of European influence, and leading to complete decay by the middle of the 19th century. During its greatest period, however, the influence of the Mohammedan culture extended through India as far as Java, to China, to the Sudan, and to the whole of Russia. The European culture of the middle ages and the Renaissance was very largely derived from it. Mohammedan brocades and carpets, ivories (coffers and "olifant" horns), glasses and aguamanils, etc., found their way from Spain, Sicily and Fatimid Egypt into the ecclesias tical and princely treasure-houses of Europe ; in the period from the Crusades to the conquest of Granada the borrowings consisted mainly of Mameluke weapons and glass, azziminia bronzes, Toledo blades and majolica-ware from Spain, albarellos, etc., and book bindings. In the east the Tatars brought their culture and art, especially weapons and clothes, to the Russians. Further, through the Turkish wars various Mohammedan utensils and objets d'art— stuffs, costumes, rugs ("Polish rugs"), sabres, helmets, etc.—be came naturalised in Hungary and Poland, and even in Austria, Saxony, Bavaria and Prussia.