Historic Saudi sabre sells for $1 m

ariel · 23rd November 2013, 06:27 AM

AFAIK, swords of Safavid era had no fullers.

Swords of that region were re-hilted and re-decorated with new cartouches, signatures or just phrases on multiple occasions. There are tons of fake Assadulla's and Kalbe Ali's swords made between 17th and 19th centuries, with signatures of Assadulla made on monosteel or Sham blades:-) That is why Figiel was so fastidious about high-class wootz patterns. Recently, I even saw pictures of a khanjar signed with Assadulla's name, even though swordmakers and knifemakers in Iran belonged to different guilds and were not on speaking terms with each other:-) An inscription on the blade proclaiming attribution to a famous master or personality almost always means nothing: it could have been incised centuries later.

The story of Assadulla being a Syrian rather than Iranian master is still very popular in Arab countries. I guess local patriotism plays not a small role :-)
The same about Safavid Iran being a " gunpowder empire": on the contrary, Safavids lacked artillery and that was the main reason why Ismail and Tahmasp were beaten by the Ottomans. Shah Abbas created artillery force only under British instruction, just like most of his army was composed of Turkish and Caucasian ghulams and led by Caucasians.

23rd November 2013, 06:27 AM	#12
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	AFAIK, swords of Safavid era had no fullers. Swords of that region were re-hilted and re-decorated with new cartouches, signatures or just phrases on multiple occasions. There are tons of fake Assadulla's and Kalbe Ali's swords made between 17th and 19th centuries, with signatures of Assadulla made on monosteel or Sham blades:-) That is why Figiel was so fastidious about high-class wootz patterns. Recently, I even saw pictures of a khanjar signed with Assadulla's name, even though swordmakers and knifemakers in Iran belonged to different guilds and were not on speaking terms with each other:-) An inscription on the blade proclaiming attribution to a famous master or personality almost always means nothing: it could have been incised centuries later. The story of Assadulla being a Syrian rather than Iranian master is still very popular in Arab countries. I guess local patriotism plays not a small role :-) The same about Safavid Iran being a " gunpowder empire": on the contrary, Safavids lacked artillery and that was the main reason why Ismail and Tahmasp were beaten by the Ottomans. Shah Abbas created artillery force only under British instruction, just like most of his army was composed of Turkish and Caucasian ghulams and led by Caucasians.