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Originally Posted by Aqtai
Hi,
I'm no expert as well, but I also think it could be genuine, simply because of the simplicity of the calligraphy. It reminds me of late 15th-early 16th century Mamluk swords. I'm thinking in particular of the Sword of Tumanbay I in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo.
This is a picture of part of the blade of Tumanbay's sword, scanned from Esin Atil's "Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks":
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This example of Tumanbay's sword has some very signifigant differences from Artzi'z kilij, the style and flow of the calligraphy, but maybe more important is the early vegetal motif that flows in a circular pattern with distinctive leaf shapes. There is a dynamic in 15th-16th century floral & vegetal motifs that is discernably different from later work. The shape of the flower, the consistancy, the size of the design, the shape of the tool to make the borders, the number of lines incised to form a single gold inlay line, the number which you can divide the desgn by, the number of the multiple in the design, the shape of the inside curve(angular or round), the over and under weave technique are just some of the points of change to look for.
And to add to the mix there are definate design differences between Mamluk(Egyptian), Ottoman (Turkish), Farsi (Persian), Syrian, Armenian, Arab, etc....
Also agree with the earlier post about the use of inscriptions on blades to remember historic events.
All that said, this is a very interesting kilij and it has a storey to tell.
rand