At the exhibition dedicated to the 450th anniversary of the incorporation of Astrakhan into the Russian state, the helmet of Ivan the Terrible was exhibited. He arrived in Astrakhan from Stockholm.
As it turned out, this is a very interesting artifact. On the one hand, this is an ordinary shishak, which at that time was a traditional part of the armor of Russian knights. But the most interesting thing lies in the ornament decorating the helmet. As you can see in the picture, it is surrounded by Arabic script, which before this exhibition no one could read, or did not try. Just below it there is an inscription in Russian - "Shelom of Prince Ivan Vasilyevich, Grand Duke of the son of Vasily Ivanovich, ruler of All Russia, the autocrat."
Consul General of Iran, Seyed Golamrez Meiguni, who visited this exhibition, deciphered the Arabic inscription on the helmet. He claims that the inscription is translated from one rare Arabic dialect as "Allah Muhammad". According to the Iranian diplomat, these words may be an abbreviated version of the well-known expression "Allah is great, and Muhammad is his prophet."
Senior researcher of the museum Elena Arutyunova in an interview with ITAR TASS commented - “We consider the translation of the Iranian consul as a version that certainly requires verification by linguists and orientalists. One of the explanations why such an inscription could be on the helmet of an Orthodox Russian tsar is the assumption that the headdress was presented to the father of Ivan the Terrible by the Turkish sultan for his son. Indeed, on the second horizontal belt of the helmet, the inscription is already made in the Slavic language - "Shelom of Prince Ivan Vasilyevich, Grand Duke Vasily Ivanovich's son, ruler of All Russia autocrat"
So, colleagues, I want to ask a question. Do you agree with the version of the museum worker, and what other versions could there be? You must admit that it is rather strange that the Russian tsar wore a helmet with an inscription on his head, which is usually worn by Islamic fanatics-mujahideen.
The first version - everything was so, as the museum worker says, well, Ivan Vasilyevich did not delve into the details of what was written on his forehead, he wore a helmet - and the whole mystery.
The second version is less traditional. According to some historians in antiquity, and quite possibly not so and ancient, there was one protoreligion, which included Christianity, Islam and even Judaism. They are based on the fact that the basic tenets of monotheism preached by these religions do not contradict each other. In their opinion, indirect evidence of this is the veneration of Christ by Muslims as a prophet and the presence of a crescent moon under the cross in Russian churches. Then there was a division of religions, and further fragmentation down to small sects. According to this version, for a person professing the old proto-religion, the inscription praising Muhammad was the same shrine as the icon.
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Third version. We are not trying to interpret and think out the Arabic inscription, but we read it as it is written and believe that it is so. That is, Ivan the Terrible and the Prophet Muhammad are one and the same person.
Well, the fourth version, as for me, is the most probable. This is a helmet from a parallel world, in which the events described in version three took place.