Review of "Arms and Armour from Iran" by M. Khorasani

[B.I]

Originally Posted by Rivkin

I hoped to see a lot about Steppe swords in this book, from Kalachuri to mongol weapons. However it seems that Iranian collections are not much better than the Western ones . It talks about crucible steel, mentions kalachuri, shows a tiny picture of seljuk sabre, and we arrive to shamshirs. There are a lot of Shamshirs in this book, hordes of them, but the information on pre-shamshir swords of Islamic period is relatively scarse.

the seljuk sabre is exceptionally important, and is arguably one of the most important early persian swords, given its fantastic condition. i know the present owner of this sword, and he wasnt too happy about its inclusion (done without his knowledge, hence the poor image). all the information included was taken from a publication by the previous owner, and much research has been done on it since.
i urge anyone in, or going to italy to go to the basilica. in the treasury room (ground floor) there is a persian dagger which they claim (with no real knowledge of the subject) to be of the 14thC. whether this date is accurate or not i dont know, as it is not my field. but, it is definately old and pre-dates the 16thC. the room is very dark, and photography is prohibited. i do have a few images somewhere, but they are poor and done quickly with no flash. as far as i know, the dagger has not been published. david alexander dismissed the 14thC date, but couldnt offer me an alternative. but, i have seen him get it wrong before, so the dagger is definately up for someone to research further!