Ottoman Pala

[rand]

Have always thought this type of sword to be styled after the Sword of the Prophet kept in Tokapi Palace Museum pictured on page 15 in Yucels book, Islamic Swords and Swordsmiths. This sword has a gold scabbard/hilt adorned with rubies and turquoise.

The 18th/19th C. similar swords have a copper scabbard/hilt that has gold over a silver wash with coral and turquoise in bezels. The blades in the latter examples vary from a low quality blade to a high quality kilij. Most often the gold koftgari on these blades is a fairly low quality but occaissionally a nice example is found.

The attached example is from the early 18th C. and has I high quality kilij blade, also with low quality koftgari.

Have a photo of the Prophets sword but could not make image size small enough, can email that pic to anyone that would like to see it.

These are very desirable swords and highly sought after.....

rand