Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Help requested on Islamic? inscriptions on a heavy axe

RSWORD · 13th June 2009, 04:24 AM

I will "stick my neck" out and say that it is most probably Persian and you might want to have a close look to see if the steel is wootz. The bird imagery looked familiar to me and I was looking through "Persian Steel, The Tanavoli Collection" by James Allen and Brian Gilmour and ran across very similar imagery on a chiseled scabbard mount. On p. 222, they state "The image of a bird of prey attacking a water bird is found on 18th century Iranian saddle-axes. A.S. Melikian-Chirvani suggests that the depiction is of a hawk attacking a heron, and that it is an allegory of royal triumph." I don't know if this particular imagery carried over into India but I have also seen the bird of prey attacking a water bird chiseled at the forte of some khanjar which typically are Persian.

13th June 2009, 04:24 AM	#7
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,083	I will "stick my neck" out and say that it is most probably Persian and you might want to have a close look to see if the steel is wootz. The bird imagery looked familiar to me and I was looking through "Persian Steel, The Tanavoli Collection" by James Allen and Brian Gilmour and ran across very similar imagery on a chiseled scabbard mount. On p. 222, they state "The image of a bird of prey attacking a water bird is found on 18th century Iranian saddle-axes. A.S. Melikian-Chirvani suggests that the depiction is of a hawk attacking a heron, and that it is an allegory of royal triumph." I don't know if this particular imagery carried over into India but I have also seen the bird of prey attacking a water bird chiseled at the forte of some khanjar which typically are Persian.