Inscription on Yataghan

[erlikhan]

ham, yes Ottoman palace environment got and used many Farsi words, i think agha or aga as Turks write, is Turkish.Perhaps from the ones which passed to Farsi later. It had and still has one more meaning, "big brother" in Turkish,which I think is not used in Farsi. even Turkish inscriptions from 6th c. a.c. in today's Mongolia uses ata=father, ana=mother, ene= sister(not used today), aga= big brother etc.. In steppe, father was the certain and only leader of all family , and after him was coming the big brother as the potential leader after father's death. The respect shown to big brother and loaded on the word, caused it later to be used for militaristic and feodalistic chiefs too, to obtain the same respect against ordinary people(especially after Turks came, settled and had feodalism in farmlands of Iran,Mesopotamia and Anadolu).
Ali agha means the sword belonged to a guy named Ali, who is a bit or more over the average wealth and respect in a Balkan or Anadolu village or a countryside town. (Doesnt necessarily have to be the owner of a whole village or huge lands, but could be too)
Nice piece. The scabbard wood original or later? Looks surprizingly well preserved for a scabbard whose leather cover has worn and been lost. The lack of the craftsman's literacy didnt surprize me at all.It is too normal for the era and a village or small town. I am sure, the owner wrote what he wants to a paper, and ordered the craftsman to inscribe it onto the blade, and the guy who had never gone to school or written anything on paper, just tried to copy the shapes he saw.