Huge sword - Persia or Caucasus

[Rivkin]

Originally Posted by wolviex

Rivkin - thank you very much for your efforts, I really appreciate it!

Does Armenian letters excludes Persia as a place of workmanship?

Thanks!

My pleasure. Even today, there is a very strong armenian minority in Iran. However, in the past, Armenia per se and surrounding armenian populated areas (like Karabagh/Arzagh) were a battlefield for ottomans and iranians. Control over Armenia was going back and forth, with ancestors of modern armenians in general being more supportive of iranians and iranian culture (this topic is a subject of many heated and politisized debates). A very large number of armenians was moved by iranians to more steadily controlled iranian provinces, like Azerbajan and Mazandaran.

Now, when talking about Qajars - the early years of Qajars were marked by qajar army establishing control over entire azerbajan and eastern armenia, wrestling large armenian centers under their control. This ended with iranian defeat in ruso-iranian wars, with the borders being finalized in 1828, leaving iran with much smaller armenian diaspora.

It well may be that the sword is early qajar and was made by an iranian sympatizer, even through early Qajars were far less popular among armenians due to their turkoman origins and their support of northern iranian turks (azeris etc.).

It is also possible that the sword is of later period (if its indeed an armenian mega-kama), and in this case was most likely made in one of the armenian diaspora centers in Fars.

[Alan62]

I am still trying to figure this one out





It measures 21 and a half inches total
blade 18 inches
Just thought I would post it here too
I am trying to translate the script



and the enhanced version

[Alam Shah]

Originally Posted by Alan62

I am still trying to figure this one out
Just thought I would post it here too. I am trying to translate the script

Your script seems to be in Arabic (upside down).

[Rivkin]

I have shown it to many armenians, and they all basically confirm my opinion - 80% of letters are armenian, but the other 20% are not (at least they are not modern armenian). I will try to email some armenian studies professors around here.

[Rivkin]

I have received a few replies. They all agree the language on the sides is armenian. The language in the fuller is not, probably persian (??).

The problem is that it is some obscure version of armenian, a few characters are not typical for armenian writing. They are puzzled on where it was made - they basically cited the same information on persian-armenian relationships I posted above, does not make our job any easier. They gave me a few adresses of armenians who might be capable to work with the signature, but the closest one to you is in Venice...

They are asking is it is known how the kindjal ended up in Poland ?