Mamluk Turkish Playing Card Deck Fragment

About the Deck

Found by Leo Mayer in 1942, this deck provides a crucial link between the patterns of the East and those of the West. It has distilled the Persian/Indian suits down into suits very similar to those used still today in Mediterranean Europe. These are the same suits used in most Tarot decks today.

Provenance

Turkey, c1400.

According to Many Schools of Thought

Papus's Divinatory Meanings

Fair man. Inimical or indifferent.

A. E. Waite's Secondary Meanings

Upright

A rather dark man, a merchant, master, professor.

Reversed

An old and vicious man.

Mme. Le Normand's Divinatory Meanings

Fortune from the sea. Enterprises successful. Misfortune. Loss.

S. L. MacGregor Mathers's Divinatory Meanings

Upright

A dark Man, Victory, Bravery, Courage, Success

Reversed

An old and vicious Man, a Dangerous Man, Doubt, Fear, Peril, Danger.

P.R.S. Foli's Divinatory Meanings

Upright

A very fair or white-haired man, a soldier by profession, and of a deceitful turn of mind

Reversed

a treacherous schemer.

Mme. Le Marchand's Divinatory Meanings

a joyful bridal; a happy wedding-day: endeavors toward a union with a beloved object