The Sharbush or Harbush, Sarposh, Serpush (, , ) probably derived from the Persian word Sarpush, which means "headdress". was a special Turkic military furred hat worn in Central Asia and the Middle East in the Middle Ages. It appears prominently in the miniatures depicting Badr al-Din Lu'lu' (ruled 1234âÂÂ1259). It was a stiff cap of the military class, with a triangular front which was sometimes adorned with a metal plaque. It was sometimes supplemented with a small kerchief which formed a small turban, named takhfifa. The wearing of the Sharbà «sh was one of the key graphical and sartorial elements to differentiate Turkic figures from Arab ones in medieval Middle-Eastern miniatures.
The Sharbush could vary in size and shape, sometimes taking huge proportions, as in the in the frontispiece of the 1237 Maqamat of al-Hariri. The shape of the sharbush seems to have varied depending on geographical regions:
The sharbush headgear was a rallying sign for Saladin, and he wore it on his Mayyafariqin coinage. When Henry II, Count of Champagne, king of Jerusalem, tried to build a friendly relationship with Saladin, he requested the gift of a qabàrobe and a sharbà «sh hat, which he wore in Acre.
The Sharbush was also a symbol of investitute under the Egyptian Mamluks, as it was part of the khil'a given to an amir on the occasion of his accession. The sharbush was worn by high-ranking officers of the Ayyubid and Bahri Mamluk period.
In Mamluk Egypt, the wearing of the Sharbush was banned in 1382.