Kulāf

Kulāf

Kulāf

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A kulāf, or kolāh, is a type of cap that designated Sasanian nobility and official.[3] It appears on numerous reliefs and seals of the Sasanian Empire period.[3]

Stamp seal with a bearded figure in Sasanian dress, wearing the kulāf denoting nobility and officials; and a figure with radiate crown, both with royal ribbons. Attributed to the Hephthalites,[1] and recently dated to the 5th-6th century CE.[2] Stamp seal (BM 119999), British Museum.

The kulāf is often decorated with pearls, on the edge and on the surface of the cap.[3] It may also be shown with an emblem or tamgha on the surface.[3]

  • Sasanian seal of an official wearing the kulāf, with Pahlavi inscription "Roz-bud, chief wine-purchaser" (disputed), excavated in Northern Syria. 5th century CE, British Museum, 135071
  • Sasanian seal with portrait of an official wearing the kulāf, inscription in Pahlavi "Perozhormizd, son of the Kanarang". 5th century CE, British Museum, 134847.

References

  1. [1]
    KURBANOV, AYDOGDY (2010). THE HEPHTHALITES: ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS (PDF). Berlin: Berlin Freie Universität. p. 69, item 1).
  2. [2]
    Latest 5th-6th century CE date in Livshits (2000) LIVSHITS, V. A. (2000). "Sogdian Sānak, a Manichaean Bishop of the 5th–Early 6th Centuries" (PDF). Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 14: 48. ISSN 0890-4464. JSTOR 24049013.. According to earlier sources (Bivar (1969) and Livshits (1969), repeated by the British Museum) the seal was dated to the 300-350 CE in Naymark, Aleksandr. "SOGDIANA, ITS CHRISTIANS AND BYZANTIUM: A STUDY OF ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL CONNECTIONS IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND EARLY MIDDLE AGES" (PDF): 167. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help), "Stamp-seal; bezel British Museum". The British Museum.
  3. [3]
    Lerner, Judith A.; Sims-Williams, Nicholas (2011). Seals, sealings and tokens from Bactria to Gandhara : 4th to 8th century CE. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. pp. 35, 100–101. ISBN 978-3700168973.
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