[AJ1356]

Hi Dave,
It looks nice and very peculiar at the same time. The scabbard with corrals and turquoise looks nice, can you tell me it they are real stone or not? I've racked my brain but can't make anything out of the inscription on the scabbard. Now on to the blade, I could not make anything out of the Arabic portions of it, it is supposed to be Qur'anic verses but I could not figure out if it really is or just something someone semi literate tried. Maybe one of out Arabic speakers can help you with. The maker's seal can not be read at all, was it like that form the beginning or is that the result of many cleanings and etchings? On the 8th picture down, the top seals reads Servant of Shah e Welaayat, Nader. The only Nader that comes to my mind is Nader Afshar. But he was not Turkish, he ruled over-very shortly- over what are today Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. So, it is possible that in the tradition of the Safawids, the sword smith used the inscription, but with Nader's name. Still, that does not justify the reduction in the quality, I saw a later sword, maybe belonging to one of Nader's generals with quality the same as the Safawids. Without holding the item I can't say for sure if it is a much later piece meant for the whatever, but I am kinda leaning that way.