Ceremonial Camel Shaffron (Head Defense)

This shaffron once adorned the head of a camel which may have participated in the annual pilgrimage caravan from Cairo, Egypt, to Medina and Mecca. Since 1266, and until 1926, this immense caravan, sent by the Mamluk, then Ottoman, rulers of Egypt, was also given the task to deliver Egypt’s surre—money to be given to the poor of Medina and Mecca—and the kiswa, the embroidered black cover of the Ka’ba traditionally made in Cairo. In this caravan, a prime camel, richly tacked, also carried the mahmal, a pyramidal litter made of embroidered textile, sometimes described as empty or containing a Quran or other religious text. Paraded first with the rest of the caravan in an impressive procession through the streets of Cairo, along with hundreds of people, camels, horses, and mules, the Egyptian mahmal would depart to Mecca and Medina where it was placed at the most preeminent location at every step and ritual of the pilgrimage, acting as a substitute for the absent sultan.

The decoration of this shaffron, probably added in the early nineteenth century to a seventeenth-century steel horse shaffron reshaped to fit a camel’s head, comprises engraved gilt brass plaques and cabochons of carnelian stones, the latter believed to bring protection during the journey. The lavish yet martial aspect of this piece, that would have accompanied the rich trappings of the camel, was used as a statement of wealth, prestige, and power to be displayed in front of the pilgrims coming from all the Muslim world. Indeed, more than a mere expression of religious observance, the mahmal ritual and its caravan have been used for centuries by the Mamluk and Ottoman sultans, then overlords and protectors of both holy cities, to display and reinforce their power and influence over Islam’s most holy places.