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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
An interesting old blade, and I would agree with Ibrahiim in post #16, that these devotional panels in deep relief are probably motivated by some degree of talismanic potential, likely much in the same manner of the thuluth which was often used on Sudanese arms and with Mamluk origins.
In this case these panels resemble those seen on the Persian trade blades with the Assad Adullah cartouches of the 19th century. Considering the prevalent infuences and contact from Persia it seems quite in place here.
As Ariel has noted the brass or notably present disc in the center of the crossguard section of the hilt is consistently seen on paluoars and often tulwars associated with these northern regions. The profiling and down turned quillons with the stylized dragon are also constant features on these hilts.
The three dots are indeed significant and interestingly have key talismanic symbolism as Ibrahiim has noted. His observations on the four circles added around the brass center dot are most compelling regarding the apotropaic for Fatima ('five in your eye') which protects against the evil eye.
Returning to the three dots, in Central Asian context, these occur consistently and are typically regarded as the 'cintamani' or the symbol used by Tamerlane, with varying descriptions of thief origins. While the term 'cintamani' is often characterized by an additional three wavy lines and supposed to represent the spots of the leopard and stripes of the tiger and used as motif on textiles of these regions..the cintamani term is widely use for this three dot motif.
I have seen these three dots notably on back straps of Central Asian shamshirs and other weapons of these regions and seem invariably to refer to Tamerlane and this particular heritage .
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Salaams Jim, As ever perfectly noted and well researched...In Morocco I have discovered that the triangle is representative of the evil eye...and often occurs in Berber textile decoration etc. Commonly called el ain...The Eye . The inverted triangle represents the eyebrow... The saying for heres 5 in your eye is
...."khamsa fi ainek"...and beautifully illustrated in the book Arts and Crafts of Morocco by James F Jereb, Thames and Hudson.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.