Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Wootz Marsh Arab dagger translation help?

ALEX · 16th April 2010, 05:19 PM

Spiral, not many junk shops would have a dagger like this, so you had a great find.
This one is certainly of above average quality for these jambiyas. The sham wootz blades on them are common, especially on ones with good quality silver scabbards like yours.
The blade looks proper i.e. original to the dagger, it is not of cut-down sword blade. I could not see any cartouche apart from some gold? residue at the base, which does not look as a cartouche.
The lion is imitation of famous "Lion of God" cartouche commonly encountered on Islamic blades. Along with writing it is much later, very crudely done and not matching the rest of scabbard... does not belong there, and a good example of bad attempt to add "value".

16th April 2010, 05:19 PM	#2
ALEX Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 936	Spiral, not many junk shops would have a dagger like this, so you had a great find. This one is certainly of above average quality for these jambiyas. The sham wootz blades on them are common, especially on ones with good quality silver scabbards like yours. The blade looks proper i.e. original to the dagger, it is not of cut-down sword blade. I could not see any cartouche apart from some gold? residue at the base, which does not look as a cartouche. The lion is imitation of famous "Lion of God" cartouche commonly encountered on Islamic blades. Along with writing it is much later, very crudely done and not matching the rest of scabbard... does not belong there, and a good example of bad attempt to add "value". Last edited by ALEX; 16th April 2010 at 05:30 PM.