The Turk’s Head symbol pervaded European royal courts beyond Britain.

Evidence

The Turk’s Head remained a dominant symbol of Islam in Britain for some time. In addition to its use on signage and in the Turk’s Head pie, it is also found in other parts of Europe. In 2010, I visited Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Hapsburgs, where I made an unexpected discovery—a painting in Maria Theresa’s “Carousel Room” that depicts the carousel game (see Figure 3.4). In this case, there is a curious addition, the decapitated head of a man floating in the background—a “Turk’s head.” — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 339

Categorization

• QUESTION: How did the severed-Turk’s-head motif travel from British pies to Habsburg court paintings? What was the transmission channel?