Mirror armour

Mirror armour (Old East Slavic: зерцало / zertsalo meaning "mirror"; Chinese: 护心镜 / hùxīnjìng, meaning "protect-heart mirror"), sometimes referred to as disc armour or as chahār-āyneh / char-aina (Persian: چهاﺮآﻳنه meaning "four mirrors"; hence Kazakh: шар-айна / şar-ayna), was a type of cuirass used mainly in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe including Indian, Persia, Tibet, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. It literally translates to "four mirrors" which is a reflection of how these pieces looked, which resembles four (sometimes more) metal discs or rectangular armour plates. Mirror armor was used in some cultures into the 20th century.

Mirror armour is a type of partial plate armour which was developed initially from round metal mirrors (a kind of rondel) worn over other armour (usually over mail) as enforcement. Metal mirrors in this armour were considered as protection from not only cold steel and arrows, but also supernatural influence. It was believed that mirrors could reflect the evil eye, so they were polished and worn over other armour.

Early mirror armour consisted of a round mirror attached to the body with a few leather laces (similar to the Roman phaelerae). In Europe, they were known as "kardiophylax" (Greek) or "apezak" (Armenian) and were popular with various Bronze Age civilisations, as well as the Central Asian tribes such as the Saka and Yuezhi, and also among the Sasanians.

Late mirror armour took the form of a mirror cuirass, helmet, greaves, and bracers worn with mail. There were two alternative constructions of mirror cuirass:

Early types of this armour were known among the Celtiberians, by the Romans, in the Middle East, Central Asia, India, Russia, Siberia (where it was worn by Siberian natives before the Russian conquest), Mongolia, Indochina and China (including Tibet too).

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