Please help on an Islamic sword
 

Please Gentlemen, i need as much help as i can, on this piece.
I don't even know how to name it. The blade is 14" ( 35 cms. ) long.
The mountings are both copper and brass, apart from the scabbard mid section in velvet ... all looking original. The blade has no damage.
The inscriptions in both blade sides look ( just look ) Arabic to me.
The seller had previously mentioned that, the shape of the scabbard tip was intended to look like something, but i don't remember what, maybe because i got skeptical about it.
I kindly ask for your coments, both identifying the piece and the inscription script type or translation.
Thanks in advance
fernando

one more

Looks like an Indian dagger made in an arab hejazi style to me.

Thank you S.Al-Anizi
Any idea of what is written in the inscriptions? Maker's mark, Owner's name, verses of the Quran ?

The end of the scabbard reminds me of the decorative covers I've seen used on the end of elephants tusk.

Hi S.
If I can recall correctly, are these Hejaz daggers termed 'sabaki' ?
I agree this does appear to be of Indian production, especially with the familiar velvet on the scabbard.
Best regards,
Jim

The koftgari looks pristine, Fernando. Did the seller provide you with any provenance or an estimate of age?

Hi Jim,

I do not know alot about daggers as I do about the swords. I must research more into terminology on my next trip to Riyadh ;)

Regards,

Al-Anizi

Sorry fernando, I cant make a word out of that. It could be urdu, or one of the many languages that use the arabic script.

Indian made, Hejazi style
 

Thank you all for your postings.
Robert, i remember now that the seller associated the scabbard end to a certain poisonous snake, but i don't think he had a strong basis. I well understand your relating this part to the elephant tusk ornaments.
Hi Jim, great info, as usual. I will search into Sabaki.
I confess my ignorance, as not being able to look at this specimen and distinguish which parts are of Indian ( Islamic ? ) influence, and which have an Arabian ( Hejazi ) shape, as i have no basics to judge it. A little help would be much wellcome.
Thank you Andrew, for your kind coments on he koftgary work. These inscriptions were the strongest factor which opened my pocket, to pay an absurd price for this piece. No, the Seller doesn't know its provenance. He bought in auction with an Arms lot. He remembers having concluded that these were kept well stored in the same place for three generations, and this dagger would be from the 3/4 19th century ... but all very abstract.
The more direct sign to its age use is the velvet section, with its comb worn off, and the one only worm hole through cloth and wood.
I am dying to know what kind of wording is these inscriptions.
Kind regards

Thank you anyway for your help, S. Al-Anizi.

Hi Fernando,
It seems to me that Elgood notes in his book "Arms & Armour of Arabia" that on the janbiyya scabbard, the bulb at the tip represented a garlic bulb and was termed 'thum' if memory serves. Now if that was a scabbard from out here in the west, that bulby thing would be a dead ringer for a rattler (nasty critters!) :)
S., thank you!

All best regards,
Jim

Thank you again Jim.
Now i know i can consider this piece as of the janbiyya range. I have an Yemeni janbiyya with a traditional shape, and i wouldn't risk to associate both specimens without help. I will also surely buy Elgoods book, if it is available.
As an unitiated collector i can understand the seller's own conclusion on the scabbard end shape of this piece he sold me. Morphologicly speaking, it would quicker resemble a cobra head ( not tail ), than a garlic bulb ... even Asian . I will have to learn some more about the origins of this so particular atribution.
All the best for you and your family.
Hi Al-Anizi, are you there ? I am still strugling with the inscription decoding.
Could you tell me the right direction of the text? I think the pictures i posted here are in the wrong position. Should i turn the hilt upwards, or the blade ?
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards.
fernando

Its not a Jimbiya correct? It kind of has close shapes.
I dont know, but the shape of the dagger looks of Arabian origin.

The letters are Arabic, but it is more in calligraphy form which is complex to read. The only that I am sure of is "Allah".

Hope this helps :)

I do not know much about Arabian weapons. I just post this Kurdish? dagger as the blade form, curve, and decorated section are so very similar. I do know a little about Arabian silver/metalwork and I do not think the scabbard and hilt are Yemin and I am not at sure it is Arabian.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...appy/TS006.jpg

Thank you Hrthuma for the help.
I have learnt that some times these inscriptions are made with a strong decoration style, by blade smiths who are not fluent in Arabic, or even non Arab speacking. They do the letters by copying them from another piece, or from a written text. I am glad that you can read the word Allah in it , its already a start. In this case you could also tell me if you find the letters in my pictures in the correct position, or should i rotate them upwards or downwards? Thanks again.
Hi tim, thanks for your remarks.
Nice piece of yours ... indeed similar blade shape and decoration.
If i well understood up to now, the materials and detail work used to make this scabbard , are typical of India ( Hindu or Muslim, i wish i knew ), however with an overall shape to look like an ( Hejazi ) Arab dagger, or janbiyya, in the broad sense of the word ... not much to do with the more often referred janbiyyas from Yemen or Oman, with their peculiar shape .
Same goes for the blade ... if indeed it was forged in India, could have an Indian shape, and probably its decoration was made at same time and local, and also probably with a text destinated to an Arabian client.
It looks like i still have a long way to go, to find or be told something more specific about this weapon, passing by the inscription decoding.
The sure thing is that it costed me lots of fish and ships portions.
Kind regards
fernando

Sorry Fernando I took a long time to reply, I was busy with eid and all that. Anyway, you should photograph the dagger tip up with the hilt downwards. The inscription goes from right to left (naturally), and from top to bottom.

Thank you very much indeed. That is vital for me.
All the best for you
fernando

Fernando, like S.Al-Anizi said, you should position the dagger with the tip of the blade facing upwards, and the hilt facing south.

But also as you said:
That makes reading alot harder heh.

Good luck