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Chelengk
Military decoration of the Ottoman Empire From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A chelengk (Ottoman Turkish: چـلنك;[1] Turkish: çelenk, pronounced [tʃeˈlæɲc]) was a military decoration of the Ottoman Empire.
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Turkish military award
Originally a çelenk was "a bird's feather which one attaches to the turban as a sign of bravery"[2] but by the end of the 18th century, the çelenk had become institutionalized in Ottoman military practice and continued to be awarded for military merit up to the 1820s.[3] It was a jewelled aigrette consisting of a central flower with leaves and buds, and upward-facing rays.
In modern Turkish, a çelenk is a wreath or garland, a circular decoration made from flowers and leaves, usually arranged as an ornament.
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Gifts to non-Turkish naval heroes
A specially-made chelengk was awarded to Horatio Nelson by Sultan Selim III in honour of the Battle of the Nile in 1798. This was the first time that a chelengk was conferred on a non-Ottoman.[3] The usual seven rays were augmented to thirteen, as described in a contemporary letter:
The Aigrette is a kind of feather; it represents a hand with thirteen fingers, which are of diamonds, and allusive to the thirteen ships taken and destroyed at Alexandria, the size that of a child's hand about six years old when opened; the center diamond and the four round it may be worth about £1000 each, and there are about 300 others well set.[4]
Nelson's chelengk was bought by the Society for Nautical Research in 1929 following a national appeal[5] and placed in the National Maritime Museum. It was stolen in 1951 by Taters Chatham and never recovered.[6]
Selim III also gave a chelengk to Russian Admiral Fyodor Ushakov after the capture of Corfu from the French in 1799.[citation needed]
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