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Shield
The centre of the coat of arms. According to the 1905 official description (tarifname), the shield is “an old weapon of defence”; as in Western arms, the whole composition is built around it.
The coat of arms of the Ottoman state was drawn in the 19th century following the Western heraldic tradition; its familiar form dates from a revision made at Abdulhamid II's request on 17 April 1882. Scroll down: the thirteen elements arrive one by one, you read what each one means, and the coat of arms comes together.
In this version the elements are shown as an AI-generated photorealistic interpretation, imagining the coat of arms made of real materials.
The centre of the coat of arms. According to the 1905 official description (tarifname), the shield is “an old weapon of defence”; as in Western arms, the whole composition is built around it.
Right above the shield sits the sultan's headdress. European arms place a crown here; since Ottoman sultans had no tradition of wearing crowns, Charles Young, who first drew the arms, put a wrapped fez, the imperial turban (saltanat kavuğu), in its place. The aigrette (sorguç) on top is also a mark of sovereignty.
Above the turban spread golden rays representing the sun. The official description calls them şuâ-yı zerrîn, “golden rays”.
In the middle of the golden rays is the sultan's tughra. In earlier centuries the Ottomans used no separate coat of arms and represented the state with the sultan's tughra; in the new arms the tughra was placed at the very top.
Inside the crescent that holds the tughra from below runs the inscription el-Müstenidü bi-tevfîkâti'r-Rabbâniyye Melikü'd-Devleti'l-Osmâniyye: “the ruler of the Ottoman state, who relies on God's help and guidance.”
On either side of the shield, close to the headdress, stands a lance. Right next to the lances a red and a green flag are gathered crosswise with their tassels.
On one side, the old weapons: single- and double-bladed battle-axes, a pike, infantry and cavalry swords, a cannon and cannonballs, armour (in drawings it often looks like a tube) and a rammer for loading cannonballs (tomar). Among them the tribal sword stands for the Kayı tribe that founded the state.
On the other side, the new weapons: a rifle with bayonet, a single-bladed axe and a revolver. Below them, a ship's anchor (lenger). Together they show the old and new weapons of the land and naval forces.
The scales hanging from the sceptre, a symbol of sovereignty, stand for justice. The books under the pans are the kanunnâmes, the law codes that gathered religious rulings and state regulations.
Flowers overflowing from a vase. According to the official description they represent friendship and sincerity. The vase is in fact a cornucopia, the horn of plenty, a symbol of abundance.
Curling golden scrollwork forms the base of the coat of arms. The state's orders hang from this scrollwork.
In the space between the base and the shield: in the middle, the soldiers' bugle (borazan); on either side, a quiver, a torch and arrows.
Five state decorations hang from the scrollwork: Mahmud II's İftihar medal and the orders of the Mecîdî (1851), the Osmânî (1862), the İmtiyaz (1876) and the Şefkat (1878), the last given to women.
Every element is in place. In the words of the official description: the old and new weapons of the land and naval forces, flags, law codes, scales standing for justice, flowers standing for friendship, and the state's orders.
With the Treaty of Paris (30 March 1856), signed after the Crimean War, the Ottoman state was admitted into the community of European states.
Queen Victoria wanted the Ottoman arms among the coats of arms to be placed in St George's Hall at Windsor Castle. When it turned out that the Ottoman state had no coat of arms, the heraldic expert Sir Charles Young was commissioned; Young came to Istanbul to do research.
Kostaki Bey, the Ottoman ambassador in London, sent Young's drawings to Istanbul. Sultan Abdulmejid accepted the coat of arms with a few small changes.
New changes were made at Abdulhamid II's request. This final form shows the influence of the 1850 Tanzimat Medal: the horn of plenty, the scales and the weapons came from the front of that medal.
When the Austrian embassy asked what the coat of arms meant, it turned out that no office had any information. A committee chaired by Colonel Neşet Bey prepared the coloured version and its official description (7 December 1905); Grand Vizier Ferid Pasha sent it to government offices on 6 March 1906.
Sources: Selman Can, “Osmanlı Arması’nın Oluşumu ve Unsurları”, Türklük Bilgisi Araştırmaları 24 (2000), pp. 77–90 (the 1905 official description and Ottoman archival documents); TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, entry “Arma” (in Turkish).
Drawing: Wikimedia Commons (public domain); the division into elements and the 3D relief are by the Atlas of the Sultans. Photorealistic look: an interpretation generated with AI (Google Gemini); it is not a photograph of a real object.
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