Divided Blade Dagger
 

Greetings All,

Here are pics of a recent purchase. My stock of reference books is small and I am unable to identify the dagger. Looks Indo-Persian to me. It seems to my inexpert eye that dividing the blade into two makes the dagger less efficient than if it was in the usual single blade form.
Can anyone help with identification?
Brian

Hi Brian,
My two cents worth suggests it is of relatively recent Indian manufacture, but in the scabbard it LOOKS like a Kurdish dagger, which I suspect it is not.
Stu

I feel it is an early to mid 20th century Syrian tourist or bazaar item.

I HAVE WATCHED THEM MAKE DAGGERS AND VASES SIMILAR TO THIS ONE IN MOROCCO AS WELL. A FINE PATTERN IS CUT IN THE METAL AND THEN FINE SILVER WIRE FORCED INTO THE DEEP GROOVES. ITS A PRIMITIVE TECHNIQUE THAT DOESN'T REQUIRE COMPLICATED TOOLS JUST SKILLED GROUPS OF PEOPLE SO IT IS LIKELY THIS SORT OF WORK IS DONE IN SEVERAL TOWNS AS WELL AS COUNTRY'S. THE WORKERS MAKING THEM COULD NO DOUBT POINT OUT DIFFERENCES AND PIN DOWN ITS ORIGIN BUT I CAN'T. MOST THEY MADE IN MOROCCO WERE SMALL DAGGERS FOR TOURISTS BUT THEY SAID THEY WERE FOR WOMEN TO CARRY FOR PROTECTION ALSO. :shrug:

Syrian 20th

Hi,
the double blade is a following of the sword zulfikar, which was the double bladed sword of mohamed. You can find more pictures under this name in the internet.
Dirk

as already noted, this is 20th century syrian tourist/souvenir dagger. it is not silver inlaid, it is overlay i.e. coftgari technique, which was/is made in Syria as well.