Need help identifying an old shamshir
 

Hi..I'm new to this forum, and there seem to be some well-informed participants that might be able to help me identify a sword I recently received. It appears to be made of wootz steel with the Assadullah cartouche and the silver work is very nice... I would appreciate some help.... thanks!

Sorry I goofed. See next comment.

The symbol of lion with a sword and a sun on its back is Iranian, Pahlavi Dynasty, i.e. 20th century.
Assadullah 's name can be found on thousands of blades. However, the blade seems to be real Damascus, i.e. older than the handle with the symbol. Japanese used ancestral blades on military swords; why couldn't Iranians?
Can we see the entire sword?

Hi Ariel
 

I'm trying to figure out how to shrink the photos to fit within the forum thread requirements... sorry.. I think I might need to get a software package to reduce the resolution... please bear with me....

FREE
 

Software go to

http://www.irfanview.com/

Download

Take a picture of the entire sword .

Use a picture setting on your camera of 2MB or so (bigger files need more reduction) a comp. screen is what ; 72 dpi ?

Open it using irfanview .
resize it to 800 X 600
then save at approximately 60 %
You should come out with an image that will fit the image requirements .

Let's see if this works....

This is late 19th or early 20th century Iranian court work for an officer with strong European influence, as Ariel notes above it is mounted with an heirloom blade which is not unusual.
As to the Lion and Sun crest, this appears much earlier in an Iranian context. This particular rendering of it however is very similar to that depicted on period coins, an additional argument in favor of an early 20th century attribution date.

Ham