Eagle (heraldry)

The Eagle: Single and Double-Headed (Bicephalous)

At the base of Ab-ú’s statue, found in the Old Sumerian shrine of Eshnunna (Tell Asmar), his symbol of a lion-headed eagle, with outstretched wings and talons, is shown as diving down upon his prey, arranged mirror-symmetrically. The lion-headed eagle was also known as the Ningirsu (storm-bird) in the Sumerian city of Lagash and said to have appeared as one or two lion-head eagles on recently excavated historical artifacts. The two-headed eagle later was an emblem of twin gods depicting power and omniscience. It appeared on monuments of the first Hittite Empire and was an attribute of Nergal. Another very archaic Mesopotamic symbol survived in Phonecian culture was the Gryphon, mythical beast with the lower body of a lion and upper body of an eagle.

Symbolism

To the pagans, Eagle, with a natural head, was an emblem of Jupiter, that is, god of moral law and order, protector of suppliants and punisher of guilt. Among the Druids, Eagle was a symbol of their Supreme Being. The eagle and lion of Innishowen were used as celtic druidic symbols. In 102 B.C. the Roman Consul Marius decreed that the single head Eagle be displayed as a symbol of Imperial Rome. It is said that when the Second Temple had been built in 20 B.C., Herod the Great offended the people by mounting a Roman golden eagle over the gate. When Herod died some years later, his opponents tore down the eagle. It is believed that the Prophet Mohammad’s first standard or flag in 7th century A.D. was a plain flag with no insignia on it to contradict the national standard of the opposing pagan Quraish tribe, Al-Uqaab, that had a black eagle on white background, the sacred Eagle that carried pagan prayers from Earth to the Sky.

Central Asian Turkish Shamans carried a wooden stick pole with seven or nine horizontal sticks forming stairs to an Eagle put on the top of the stick during their rituals. The eagle was regarded, for example, as a holy bird, a protective spirit, and the guardian of heaven. It was also a symbol of potency and fertility. Eagles on tombstones reflected the Shamanistic belief that the souls of the dead rose up to Heaven in the form of birds or were accompanied and protected by the eagle while traveling in the underworld and the sky. Eagle also was believed to be a carrier of prayers to the sky. The Altaic figures carved into rocks suggest that the eagle also was a sign of grandeur and magnificence among the Turks.

The Turkish Shamanistic religious heritage of Asian roots survived to some extent after their acceptance of Islam and migration westwards. The metaphorical meaning of the name of Tougrul Beig (993-1063 A.D.) who founded the Seljuk State as its foremost commander was “Eagle”. The spirit of the Türkmen is accepted as 'horse' in the fifth and as “eagle” in the third period.

At the time of Seljuks, the existence of the Sumerian and Hittite peoples and languages was not suspected. The first major excavations leading to the discovery of such civilizations and their remnants were conducted only after the mid 19th century.

Twin Headed Eagle and the Turks

The Seljuk Turks emigrating from Central Asia occupied Baghdad in 1055 and Tougrul captured Mosul, and upon returning to Baghdad in 1058 was given the title of the '’King of the East and West'’. The Seljuks were even more anxious to have their rule legitimized: seen as aliens they were unpopular with the townsfolk of Persia and Iraq, and Tougrul's investiture by the Caliph in 1058, in a magnificent ceremony during which two crowns were held over his head as symbols of his regal authority over East and West, confirmed that the he now was the Commander of the Faithful. At the time the double-headed eagle became his and the Seljuk state’s coat of arms and flag, one head symbolizing the east and the other one symbolizing the west. As the Seljuk Empire’s insignia, the twin-headed eagle appears in Turkish coins from 11th century and onwards as well as a number of architectural remains scattered in central and east Anatolia. These architechural remains also depict palm trees under bicephalous eagle as the tree of life, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Seljuk Turkish Sultans’ use of references to the east and the west as well as the palm tree of life were inspired by the passages in Quran:

“And the pains of childbirth drove Mary to the trunk of a palm-tree: She cried in her anguish: 'Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!' But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the palm-tree: 'Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee. And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: It will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee. So eat and drink and cool thine eye. And if thou dost see any man, say, 'I have vowed a fast to Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into not talk with any human being'. At length she brought the (baby Jesus) to her people, carrying him in her arms. They said: 'O Mary! truly an amazing thing hast thou brought!' (19:23-27) (Moses) said (to the Pharoah): 'He is the god of the East and the West, and all between; if you only had sense'( 28:28) Now I do call to witness the Lord of all points in the East and the West (70:40) (He is) Lord of the East and the West: there is no god but He: take Him therefore for (thy) Disposer of Affairs (73:9)”.

Seljuk Turks, led by AlpArslan whose name meant "a valiant lion" and who was the nephew of Tougrul Beg, captured Jerusalem from the Egyptians in 1071, the same year as they entered Anatolia through Manzikert, introducing to the localities the bicephalous eagle standard of Seljuks of Rum (Roma) which transacended to generations from subsequent interface of nations through the crusades.

Turkish dynasties had also emerged in the middle east as a result of the policy of Abbasi caliphate that provided the excessive employment of Turkish commanders and soldiers in the army. One of the dynasties established by the Turks is the Eyyubi State (1171-1252) named after the father of Selahaddin, Eyyub, as the founder. Selahaddin, born to a Turkish mother, came as a commander appointed by the Tutor of Mosul. His family members had the ancient Turkish names such as Selahaddin's brothers Turanshah,Tugtekin and Böri. His wife, Amine, the daughter of Unar Beig, was also Turk. Eyyubi dynasty had followed the Turkish traditions and included the eagle as their emblem on a yellow colored flag.

Royal Heraldry

The first known use of the eagle as the arms of the Emperor or the Empire by the West is a coin, minted in Maastricht (the Netherlands), dating from between 1172 and 1190 after contacts via the crusades. It shows a single-headed eagle (http://www.ngw.nl/int/dld/duitslan.htm). The double-headed Seljuk Eagle later became the symbol of the Emperor Michael VIII Paliologos, the last Greek-speaking "Roman" (i.e. Byzantine) to rule from Constantinople. Paliologos recaptured Constantinople from the Crusaders in 1261 and adopted the double-headed eagle as his symbol of the dynasty's interests in both Asia and Europe. It represented looking towards the East (Asia Minor, traditional power center of the Byzantine-government in exile after the IVth Crusade) and the West (newly reconquered land in Europe) centered on Constantinople.

Charles the Great, (Charlemagne in French or Karl Der Große in german), was a Frankish ruler as the first Holy Roman Emperor from 800 - 814 A.D. in days when no 'France' or 'Germany' existed. He had the statue of a black eagle with single head placed on top of his palace in Aachen. A frequently encountered misquote, mostly by copy circulation on the world wide web is “When Charlemagne was made “Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire”, he joined the two heads together, one looking east and the other west, thus symbolizing the union of these two powers.” There is no printed or built genuine material left from his time showing any evidence of his use of a double-head eagle as his coat of arms. A stained glass artwork found in a later period church reflects the adaptation of his symbols as artists’ representation expressed much later than Charlemagne’s reign, showing half of the body of a single-head black eagle as the symbol of the German emperors next to a fleur-de-lis as the symbol of the kings of France in two halves of a shield, as the sign of dichotomy of his reign, and that is not considered a chronologically accurate evidence that he might indeed have used a double-head eagle as his crest at his time (http://www.charlemagne.net).

The first mention of a double-headed eagle in the West dates from 1250 in a roll of arms of Matthew of Paris for Emperor Friedrich II. In Russia it was Ivan Basilovitz who first assumed the two-headed eagle, when, in 1472, he married Sophia, daughter of Thomas Palæologus, and niece of Constantine XIV, the last Emperor of Byzantium. The two heads symbolised the Eastern or Byzantine Empire and the Western or Roman Empire.

External links

• Arthurian Heraldry

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