This helmet was forged from watered steel and decorated in gold with arabesques and Qur’anic inscriptions. It is similar to a helmet (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) made about 1560 for a grand vizier of the Ottoman sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66). Both helmets were presumably made in one of the imperial workshops 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 symbol of rank.

Open full-size image