Brian
The catalogue was written by Professor J.M. Rogers who is the Honorary Curator of the Khalili collection as well as holding the Khalili chair of Islamic art and archaeology at the school of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Much of the Khalili arms/armour collection was catalogued many years back by David Alexander. I do not know if the attribution to the 13th century is based on the opinion of Khalili, Alexander or any of a number of researchers that worked on his collection. I cannot say whether or not the sword would date to the 13th century. I have never handled or seen a sword of such an early date so I am poorly qualified to make such an assessment. The tang showed great age due to its coloration but we know that is not an exact science either. Some of the koftgari is obviously of a later date and the catalogue surmises it is 16th century because the particular "cloud" motif used is comparable to other 16th century work found. I would be comfortable with a 16th century date and it very well could date earlier if the inscription could be somehow authenticated. In any case, it was a nice sword that was being shown with two other really nice Shamshir and a fairly average Yataghan.
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