ABSTRACT
The collection of the Imperial War Museum contains an object with a more than usually chequered history. When in 1899 the German Kaiser Wilhelm II undertook something of a state visit to the domains of his close ally, the Ottoman ruler ‘Abd al-Hamid, he ordered, as a gesture of respect, a gold wreath to be made in honour of Saladin, whose cult in Europe had reached new heights in that century. It features a small but elaborate monogram in contemporary German style and long inscriptions in cursive Arabic, which remain unpublished. The Kaiser presented it ceremoniously at the tomb of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in Damascus. But it was not destined to remain there for long, since less than two decades later Lawrence of Arabia made off with it, and the wreath ended its travels in the Imperial War Museum. This chapter analyses the background to this extraordinary artefact and deciphers its Arabic inscriptions accurately for the first time.
