Armenian Kindjal/Bebut
 

Here is another piece from my collection. Armenian, mid-late 19th century. The koftgari on the blade spells out "ԲՍԱԸԹԽ" (BSAEHTKH), which is neither a name nor a word in the Armenian language.

Armenian inscribed Kindjals are quite rare, as they were not nearly as ubiquitously worn by Armenians as they were by other Caucasians.

Many of the existing Armenian kindjals seem to have such unintelligible Armenian writing on them. If anyone has any more information on why this was done, I would really appreciate it.

For me, it looks like ԻՍԱՐԹԽ (isartkh)

…which also doesn’t mean anything

The letters could be stylized versions of those yes.