The travels of a very important dagger

B.I · 16th March 2005, 12:24 PM

jens' recent 'meteoric' developed well, and progressed into a good study of meteoric iron and its use and importance.
i thought i would divert it a little and recap on this amazing dagger in a post of its own, more to avoid stopping the academic work being done in the original post.
this dagger now sits in the freer gallery at the smithsonian and it obviously holds an important place amongst the collection, and rightly so. it seems strange that a piece like this is not more commonly known, given its heritage and its mention in such a historical manuscript. to re-cap -

'it was ordered together with a dagger and two swords, to be made from the metal of a meteorite. accounts of this incident appear in jahangirs memoirs and also in the iqbal-nameh-i jahangiri. the armourer was ustad da'ud, described in the iqbal-nameh as 'well known in those days for the swords he made'. it is inscribed in gold persian nasta'liq on the spine of the blade:

'there fell in the time of jahangir shah from lightning-like precious piece.janhangir ibn akbar ordered to make from it two swords (shamshir), this knife (kard) and a dagger (khanjar). in the year 1030 (1621ad) in the year 16 (of jahangirs succession),146.'

the accession number at the smithsonian is - Purchase, F1955.27a-b and as i mentioned before, this alone can lead to additional information.
there is more to tell about its journey, although as far as i know this story hasnt been published. please excuse my brief journey into persian history, as it is not really my subject.

the qajar rulers route their history back to a turkamen decendence. although already established, the real patriarch and progenitor of the Qajar ruling house was Fath Ali Shah (attached image). his lineage still exists and at some point during the 1950s, the eldest son came to the united states to study. his mother gave him a family heirloom, and told him to sell it if he needed the money during his stay. this heirloom was the attached dagger, once owned by jahangir.
in more recent times, the younger brother visited the smithsonian, where he was shocked to see the family dagger. he did not know it had been removed from the family (how, i hear you ask!) but recalled peeling fruit with it as a child. he could also recite the inscription from memory. as the accession records show the date 1955, we can assume this is when they bought it from the elder brother.
this is known and accepted, but another interesting insight which came indirectly from the family, is that it was thought to have been owned also by shah abbas, who had possible recieved it as a gift from jahangir himself. this is a family tale, with no definate provenance, but it makes sense as jahangirs passion and exhaustive trade links with persia are well known.
interesting stuff!

16th March 2005, 12:24 PM	#1
B.I Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 485	The travels of a very important dagger jens' recent 'meteoric' developed well, and progressed into a good study of meteoric iron and its use and importance. i thought i would divert it a little and recap on this amazing dagger in a post of its own, more to avoid stopping the academic work being done in the original post. this dagger now sits in the freer gallery at the smithsonian and it obviously holds an important place amongst the collection, and rightly so. it seems strange that a piece like this is not more commonly known, given its heritage and its mention in such a historical manuscript. to re-cap - 'it was ordered together with a dagger and two swords, to be made from the metal of a meteorite. accounts of this incident appear in jahangirs memoirs and also in the iqbal-nameh-i jahangiri. the armourer was ustad da'ud, described in the iqbal-nameh as 'well known in those days for the swords he made'. it is inscribed in gold persian nasta'liq on the spine of the blade: 'there fell in the time of jahangir shah from lightning-like precious piece.janhangir ibn akbar ordered to make from it two swords (shamshir), this knife (kard) and a dagger (khanjar). in the year 1030 (1621ad) in the year 16 (of jahangirs succession),146.' the accession number at the smithsonian is - Purchase, F1955.27a-b and as i mentioned before, this alone can lead to additional information. there is more to tell about its journey, although as far as i know this story hasnt been published. please excuse my brief journey into persian history, as it is not really my subject. the qajar rulers route their history back to a turkamen decendence. although already established, the real patriarch and progenitor of the Qajar ruling house was Fath Ali Shah (attached image). his lineage still exists and at some point during the 1950s, the eldest son came to the united states to study. his mother gave him a family heirloom, and told him to sell it if he needed the money during his stay. this heirloom was the attached dagger, once owned by jahangir. in more recent times, the younger brother visited the smithsonian, where he was shocked to see the family dagger. he did not know it had been removed from the family (how, i hear you ask!) but recalled peeling fruit with it as a child. he could also recite the inscription from memory. as the accession records show the date 1955, we can assume this is when they bought it from the elder brother. this is known and accepted, but another interesting insight which came indirectly from the family, is that it was thought to have been owned also by shah abbas, who had possible recieved it as a gift from jahangir himself. this is a family tale, with no definate provenance, but it makes sense as jahangirs passion and exhaustive trade links with persia are well known. interesting stuff! Attached Images Last edited by B.I; 16th March 2005 at 12:52 PM.