This helmet was forged from watered steel and decorated in gold with arabesques and Koranic inscriptions. It is very similar to one now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, made in about 1560 for a grand vizier of the Ottoman sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (reigned 1520–66). Both helmets were presumably made in one of the imperial workshops, possibly in Istanbul. Although this helmet is a serviceable military object, it must have been created primarily as part of a parade armor and as a symol of rank.
