Very confusing persian kard
 

I have a question about a very confusing Persian kard.

It's an all wootz steel Persian kard but two things are very strange :

The scabbard is not Persian but from Sudan???

Then it seems that the decoration was bruptally removed and another inscription was placed above.

Is anyone such as Kiwatek can translate this inscription to help??

Thanks

:confused:

this way better

Hello Kubur,

It might have been the case the blade was badly rusted and the original koftgari was damaged/removed during the cleaning process, then the old cartouche was repaired, or alternately, a new cartouche was added.

Anyhow, this type of cartouche is not very common on Persian blades but on Turkish blades (Persian blades commonly had different type of decoration- see photos) :shrug:

The blade can be also Turkish or North Indian. Unless we see more of the type of wootz, it would be hard to tell the difference. :shrug:

PS: Ariel, I believe there can be discerned at least two sets of criss-cross hatchings that would point towards a secondary repaired/replaced cartouche.

Old bladed weapons very often come to us with their 3rd, 4th etc scabbards. Thus, IMHO, nothing surprising here.
And why do you think the original inscription was removed and replaced?

The hatching and the inscription look fairly crude, and to my eyes at least, the wrong way up. Something I've noticed on several of these with the rough hatching.
Regards
Richard

It's what I think, if the scabbard is from Sudan I wonder if the inscription is from Sudan too...
I dream that kiwatek could help us...
:shrug:

Sorry for absence. It has been a strange time ...

It says, in Arabic:

هدیة من سلطان سليمان الى جوهر اغا

'Gift from Sultan Sulayman (Süleyman) to Jawhar Agha (Cevher Ağa)'

I don't think we can take that as a serious attribution, though it doesn't look like a modern fake to me either. From an early age artisans copied royal inscriptions on humbler pieces.

Please don't be sorry, your help is so valuable.
The most important is to be safe and healthy.
Thank you very much and I agree the inscription doesn't fit with the knife and was added later. At least, it's very chic!
Warm regards,

Zukran Kwiatek!

Kubur,
I see what you mean: in your #2 the right side of the inscription looks different from the left one. It is not as tight. Definitely the inscription was monkeyed with.