Dapper Ink

We’re proud to be the official outfitter for The History Bluff, a fake history site that quite literally makes history every day. We asked them if they could educate our readers about the beginning of the t-shirt; they agreed and presented us with the following narrative:

Claiming to be on a mission from heaven, Genghis Khan and his Mongol horde surged through Eurasia with surprising speed befitting that of a well-organized army. The army’s precision was due in part to years spent on the battlefield, but credit for their success should go to the tiishah, a colored fabric or jersey that was hung over each warrior’s armor. 

Genghis had several generals under his command, under which were many different types of troops. This called for a sophisticated system of identification that only the tiishah could meet. Subotai, the Khan’s best general, proposed that each general be assigned a color and that general’s soldiers would wear different shades and sleeve lengths based on warrior type and rank. 

For years the Mongols sacked cities and upended trade routes with frightening efficiency because of their ability to quickly identify their comrades both nearby and far away on the battlefield. Oftentimes, Subotai’s red team would engaged in a frontal attack with Arslan’s blue team swept through the defenders from the flank.

Long after tiishah rode on Mongol backs across desert plains and flowing grasslands, this colored piece of fabric has grown into a worldwide phenomenon we now know as the t-shirt.

For more great stories like this, check out www.thehistorybluff.com.  Their official apparel is often given away to those who match wits with them on the caption contest.  Good luck!

Custom Apparel for The History Bluff

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 7:12 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.