Assistance requested with Arabic inscription on knife
 

So yesterday I acquired a few knives from the local estate yesterday of a well-traveled gentleman who recently passed away. One of them was this jambiya. Below are several photos - any assistance with translating the inscription and (presumably a) maker's mark would be appreciated. Also, where would this have originated from (the hilt form reminds me of a koumya, or maybe a qama/kindjal)? Lastly, the date inscription seems to read "1929," which appears to be a Gregorian date - am I reading that correctly, and if so, would that indicate manufacture in a Christian enclave within an otherwise Arabic-speaking population?

Anyway, on with the photos... :)

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8517/smknife.jpg

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8479/sminscription.jpg

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/4284/smmakersmark.jpg

That's a shibriya coming from Jordan. I also like those

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11806

I think I can read the year of production 1979

Hi Devadatta,

Thank you for the response. Interesting to see the same bird mark on one of the examples in that thread. Also interesting is that the dates used were Gregorian dates on those examples as well... I wonder - was this a provincial Jordanian custom, or due to the fact there was a decently large Christian community in Jordan for quite some time (I don't know about now)?

BTW, I remember that thread, if only for the following comment in response to your OP:

"before an Arabic course, may be you might see for a photographic course :D "

:D LOL...

I hadn't followed the thread through to its conclusion, though...

Chris

Well, many of them have a bird-mark

And actually many Jordan and Syrian daggers of XX century have Gregorian date as I could discover through collecting some and searching the Web. Maybe it started because of Europeans in that regions, who purchased those as souvenirs?

Any idea what the significance of the bird mark was?

*Bump* to the top in the hopes one of the forum's Arabic speakers is around and can provide a translation...