Tulwar with inscription - Help needed

[AHorsa]

Dear All,

I inhereted this Tulwar from my dad. He did a roadtrip to Afghanistan and India in the early 70ies and brought this Tulwar, together with a Khyber-knife and an afghan muzzle-loader back home.
I think the Tulwar was in use for a long time, as the blade is narrowed by sharpening many times. The rivet seems to be maltreated. It seems that the inscription consists of a seperate layer of metal, as in a few regions it is delaminating (s. corresponding last image).
I would love to know more about this weapon, especially the meaning of the inscription and its age as well as geographic origin.

Would be great if someone can help.

Kind regards
Andreas

[AHorsa]

More images of the inscription for completion:

[Jim McDougall]

This is one of the most extraordinary tulwars I have seen in a very long time!
I dont recall ever seeing this kind of blade motif, in which there are panels of what recalls the acid etched 'thuluth' inscriptions on North African kaskara in Sudan in late 19th c.
While the panels might contain Islamic characters, they seem applied in the manner of thuluth, in repetitive manner in a decorative sense. The other motif is decorative but perhaps with traditional symbolism within.

This is indeed very old, likely 18th into 19th c. and of the general type of tulwars well known in the Northwest Frontier of India, and into Punjab.
The blade is with what is known as 'the Indian ricasso' (Rawson, 1967) and these were used by Sikhs, Rajputs and Mughals, so it is hard to say which entity might apply here.

The thuluth inscriptions as seen in Africa seem to have been influenced by Mamluk, as well as Sufi metal work, and while Mamluks are not directly associated with India, there is an early tradition there is Delhi regions. Along with this is the Sufi influence which also prevailed in Mughal courts, especially through Jahangir in the 17th c.

These suggestions are purely speculative and only toward possible further input on this intriguing tulwar, which I hope will be forthcoming.

[AHorsa]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

This is one of the most extraordinary tulwars I have seen in a very long time!
I dont recall ever seeing this kind of blade motif, in which there are panels of what recalls the acid etched 'thuluth' inscriptions on North African kaskara in Sudan in late 19th c.
While the panels might contain Islamic characters, they seem applied in the manner of thuluth, in repetitive manner in a decorative sense. The other motif is decorative but perhaps with traditional symbolism within.

This is indeed very old, likely 18th into 19th c. and of the general type of tulwars well known in the Northwest Frontier of India, and into Punjab.
The blade is with what is known as 'the Indian ricasso' (Rawson, 1967) and these were used by Sikhs, Rajputs and Mughals, so it is hard to say which entity might apply here.

The thuluth inscriptions as seen in Africa seem to have been influenced by Mamluk, as well as Sufi metal work, and while Mamluks are not directly associated with India, there is an early tradition there is Delhi regions. Along with this is the Sufi influence which also prevailed in Mughal courts, especially through Jahangir in the 17th c.

These suggestions are purely speculative and only toward possible further input on this intriguing tulwar, which I hope will be forthcoming.

Thank you very much for your reply, Jim! That sounds very exciting. Indeed my father must have bought the tulwar somewhere in the northwestern parts of India or on the way there, as they went to Delhi.
I just found a somehow similar blade in another thread in this forum:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=20951

[ariel]

There are 2 interesting features that may be informative:
1. Pin in the center of the quillon block : usually a feature of Afghani or NW Indian sabers.
2. Downturned quillons: traditionally dating the handle to 17th century.

The validity of either of the above is not absolute, but quite suggestive.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you for linking that discussion from some years ago!! Well done on the search..perfect discourse pertaining to this exact character displayed in this amazing tulwar.

As Ariel has well observed those downward angled quillons suggest much earlier hilts, and this example seems almost stylistically aligned with the distinct 'paluoar' of Afghanistan. In the 19th century these regions were regarded as 'India' and as seen in Egerton (1885) these paluoars were included the the tulwar spectrum as far as type.

While in the linked thread some of the examples had what appeared to be machine etched copies of this blade motif, but yours as I noted seems (visually) to resemble acid etched character, and the corrosive activity seems to support that.

After seeing the linked discussion, the three orb symbol comes to mind again, and indeed this was the 'cintamani' which is traditional hallmark represented throughout Central Asian material culture. In India it occurs often as the 'trimurti' and three dots often seen repeated on tulwars, but typically in the north. The 'three' is of course seen symbolically in other cases in religious symbolism, but here, it is the 'cintamani' of Tamerlane, who these people proudly claim their descent from.

Another idea came to mind while writing this, the style of this motif reminds me of that of the Kalash people of Chitral (formerly the Kafirs of Nuristan)
and some of their work. While these people are animists in their religion, and defied conversion to Islam, there were instances of nominal adoption of the Faith, and perhaps these examples might have some connection.

It is an intriguing and exciting example! worthy of much more research...it has great stories to tell no doubt! and a wonderful tribute to your dad, who seems to have had a dynamic sense of adventure.
I think he would be pleased to see this story told