This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Ornament from a Janissary’s cap

Location:

Los Angeles, United States of America

Holding Museum:

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)

About Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles

Date of Object:

Hegira 11th century / AD 17th century

Museum Inventory Number:

M.2002.1.27

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Silver, gilt, decorated with flattened wire and granulation

Dimensions:

25.6 x 9.5cm

Period / Dynasty:

Ottoman

Provenance:

Turkey

Description:

The military supremacy that had helped make the Ottomans a world power was largely based on the highly disciplined Janissary corps – crack infantry troops. As a part of their uniform, the Janissaries wore a distinctive felt hat somewhat like a stocking cap in appearance, known as a börk, to which was affixed just above the forehead an ornament such as this rare silver gilt example. The slightly concave device, decorated with delicately worked geometric designs, would have held an insignia demonstrating the Janissary's loyalty to the Sultan–possibly a feather or even a spoon, signifying that it was the ruler who provided him with his daily soup.

How date and origin were established:

The decoration of this object, including eight- and six-pointed stars against a scrolling background, is identical to janissary hat ornaments captured from the Ottomans after the Battle of Vienna in 1683, establishing a probable terminus ante quem (e.g., Museum of Karlsruhe, Baden Germany).

How Object was obtained:

Collection of Maan Z. Madina (1926-2013), New York, until 2002 (sold to); LACMA, The Madina Collection of Islamic Art, gift of Camilla Chandler Frost.

How provenance was established:

The same type of ornament is represented attached to the distinctive Ottoman military hat in paintings, lithographs and photographs of Ottoman janissaries; the hat with ornament carved in stone forms the upper part of janissary tombstones, while a few actual hats have survived with their ornaments (e.g., Museum of Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany).

Selected bibliography:

Jenkins, Marilyn, “Mamluk Jewelry: Influences and Echoes”, Muqarnas, 5 (1988): 36, 38, figs. 16a, 16b.
Komaroff, Linda, Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Rev. ed., Los Angeles: Museum Associates, 2005: 49, fig. 47.
Komaroff, Linda, Lo Terrenal y lo divino: Arte islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Angeles, Santiago, Chile: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015: 150, 212.
Komaroff, Linda, Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016: 200.

Citation of this web page:

LACMA Staff "Ornament from a Janissary’s cap" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;us;Mus21;16;en

Prepared by: LACMA Staff

MWNF Working Number: US1 16