Special Thanks to Ron Knief for collecting and submitting this information about Turkish Puzzle Rings.
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The origin of the puzzle ring is a puzzle unto itself. There are many tales of Arabic chieftains giving the rings to their wives to ensure fidelity. The stories go that they would not tell the ladies how to assemble them and so, if the lady decided to be unfaithful, she would have to take the ring off - it would fall apart, and not knowing how to reassemble it, her deed would be discovered by the husband. Sounds a bit far-fetched as it assumes that the women were stupid enough to take it off in the first place and not smart enough to learn how to reassemble it, and the men they were with would not help them reassemble the rings.

Another wilder tale is that it is a Turkish wedding ring...... even to this day. That is pure hogwash! It is not, has never been and will never be a Turkish wedding ring, though I am sure many Turkish husbands would be delighted to get off so easy when buying a ring.

It is likely that the ring was designed in China many thousands of years ago and slowly made it's way to the lands of Anatolia. From there, it proceeded into Europe.

In order to grasp the role jewelry has played and still plays in the Turkish society, we need to look at the role of jewelry in the life of the Nomad. If we take a journey backwards a few thousand years to the earliest days in the steppes of Anatolia, we meet the Hittite woman. She is likely to have worn a good bit of jewelry, as sort of a keeper of the family treasures.

The Nomadic lifestyle dictated that one's valuables be moved and the nomadic peoples were constantly on the move. Those riches of the family that did not travel on four legs normally traveled draped over the women - in the form of jewelry. As life became even more nomadic in the Seljuk Era, gold, silver and other precious metals were fashioned into more decorative and wearable forms of art.

Ottoman women were extremely fond of jewelry. Jewelry became so fashionable during the Ottoman period that some sultans issued decrees limiting the amount of jewelry to be worn - likely a result of lobbying efforts by the men.
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Ron's Instructions for Assembling Puzzle Rings

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Additional instructions with pictures can be found at -
http://www.puzzleringsbyliza.com/4pcpuzzleringinstruction.html
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Many Turkish items can be bought over the Internet at - http://www.theturkishbazaar.com/shopping/default.asp?

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