Visionary accessories
Aurora Tellenbach
A new object has been added to Apsley House, the visor. They come in all shapes and forms but basically protect your face while you can still be seen by those who you are talking to. Interestingly enough, they are
now seen as fashion’s accessories. There are even very inventive models of recycled material.
However, it may be that many still associate the visor with the lines of armoury at various museums. The medieval war helmets served to protect the knights’ faces but only had openings to enable them to breathe. Many medieval visors were given elaborate designs or new expressions, in some ways compensating for the hidden facial expressions.
The origin of the word visor, according to the Online Etymology Dictionary, stems from c. 1300. It derives from Latin visus (a look, vision) and Anglo-French viser (face, appearance). In French that makes visière.
Napoleon had the good fortune to be gifted a horse called Vizir or Visière in 1802 by the Ottoman Sultan Selim III. Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt started in 1898 with the purpose of protecting French trade interests. He sought out direct alliances with Tipu Sultan to weaken British access to India. He failed in these respects and instead drove Selim III into alliance with Great Britain and Russia.
By the time Napoleon received Le Vizir as a diplomatic gift, he was already back in France. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Selim III was dazzled by Napoleon’s success in Europe and to his allies’ surprise, recognised him as emperor. Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt also led to that Selim III undertook a programme of Westernisation and set up direct contact with European countries by opening Ottoman embassies in major capitals.
Napoleon did not ride regularly until he started his military career, he preferred small and docile horses. Le Vizir was exactly that and became one of Napoleon’s favourite horses. When le Vizir died five years after Napoleon, in 1826, he was preserved by taxidermists. When anti-Napoleonic sympathies ran high, le Vizir was shipped off to England where he was displayed in Manchester Museum. He later returned to France where he ended up in storage in the Louvre. Recently a campaign raised a huge sum of money to restore le Vizir and can now be seen at the Musée de l’Armée in Paris.
Although the name le Vizir can be associated with vision, and it possibly gave Napoleon a better view from being slightly above ground, it is most likely that the name derives from the word wazir.
Etymologically the word is derived from the Arabic root W-Z-R, meaning ‘to carry a burden’. This burden is not necessarily to carry a rider of a magnificent horse, but more of a metaphorical burden of carrying responsibilities.
The history of transliteration has given different outcomes when using Latin letters, hence the different spellings through time and in different European languages. Vezir or vizier became a known word in the English language in 1562 when Sokollu Mehmed Pasha was the Ottoman grand vizier, or chief minister.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online, he was perhaps the real ruler under the empire of the sultans Suleiman the Magnificient and Selim II. Recruited through the child-tribute levied in Bosnia, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha rose to the rank of admiral and later governor-general of the Balkans. He fought with Selim II over the succession to the throne and married one of his daughters. As grand vizier he favoured peace but had many enemies and was eventually assassinated.
Even today the word wazir is used for someone with a burden or responsibilities in the Arab world, for example when addressing a minister.
