In contrast to the European custom of coronation, the most important ceremony in the inauguration of most Islamic rulers was the investiture with a sword. This extravagantly decorated saber is traditionally said to have been made in 1876 for the investiture of the Ottoman sultan Murad V (r. May 30-August 31, 1876). He suffered a nervous breakdown before the ceremony and was subsequently deposed and kept a prisoner until his death in 1904.
The sword appears to have been fashioned by a court jeweler using a seventeenth-century Iranian blade, an eighteenth-century Indian jade grip, and gem-studded gold mounts of contemporary workmanship. Although of late manufacture, this sword symbolizes the wealth and love of ostentatious display that have been associated with the Ottoman court since the sixteenth century.
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