The basic costume of the Mongol fighting man was his everyday apparel. It consisted of a heavy coat fastened at the waist by a leather belt. From the belt would hang his sword, dagger, and possibly an ax. This long robelike coat would double over, left breast over right, and be secured with a button a few inches below the right armpit. The coat might be lined with fox, wolf, or lynx fur. Pockets in the coat could contain a stone for sharpening his weapons and arrowheads. Dried meaf and curd wrapped in cloth might also be found in this pocket. Underneath the coat, a shirtlike undergarment with long, wide sleeves was commonly worn. Materials such as silk and metallic thread were increasingly used. The richer soldiers would wear garments fashioned from the skins of wolves, foxes, and even monkeys, whereas the poorer soldier would make do with dog or goat skins. Lining was made from silk stuffing, which proved a very effective form of insulafion. The poor would line fheir outer garments with cotton cloth or with the fine wool picked from the coarser wool used in making felt. Silk became more and more common as the conquest of China proceeded.
The boots were made from felt and leather and though heavy would be comfortable and wide enough to accommodate the trousers tucked in before lacing tightly They were heelless, though the soles were very thick and lined with fur. Worn with felt socks, the feet were unlikely to get cold. The characteristic Mongol hat was made of felt and fur.
Lamellar armor would be worn over the thick coat. The armor was composed of small scales of iron, chain mail, or hard leather sewm together with leather thongs and could weigh 10 kilograms if made of leather alone and more if the cuirass was made of metal scales. The leather used in armor was first softened by boiling. It was then coated in a crude lacquer made from pitch, which rendered it waterproof. Sometimes the soldier's heavy coat was simply reinforced with metal plates. Friar Giovanni DiPlano Carpini, an intelligence agent, reported in some detail on all aspects of the soldiers' apparel and equipment.
Mongol warrior's helmet, Mohhut Museum. Courtesy of Xinjiang Qinshan Culture Publishing
Helmets were cone shaped and composed of iron or steel plates of different sizes and included iron-plated neck guards. The Mongol cap was also conical in shape and made of quilted material with a large turned-up brim, reversible in winter, and earmuffs.
Combatants wore protective heavy silk undershirts, a practice learned from the Chinese. Even if an arrow pierced their mail or leather outer garment, the arrowhead was unlikely to completely pierce the silk. In this way, though a wound might be opened in the flesh, the actual metal would be tightly bound in the silk and so would be prevented from causing more extensive harm and would also be easier to withdraw later. The silk undershirt would be worn beneath a tunic of thick leather, layered armor plate or mail, and sometimes a cuirass of leather-covered iron scales. Whether the helmet was leather or metal depended on rank. Contemporary illustrations depict helmets with a central metal spike bending backward and others ending in a ball with a plume and wide neck guard shielding the shoulders and the jaws and neck.
World History
