The chhatri or umbrella

[rand]

Shah Jahans dagger, he ruled 1628-1657, the dagger dates to 1629-1630 and has the umbrella displayed. Of interest there are two shades of gold inlay for contrast, that is not often seen of Islamic work.

rand

[Jens Nordlunde]

Jim, it is an interesting observation you have made, and one, which belongs to this thread, the very old trade routes taken into consideration.

Rand, thank you for showing the dagger. It is true that different kinds of gold seldom were used in a weapon.

At the exhibition in Copenhagen 1982 a sword with an umbrella was shown. It had been taken from an eunuch after a battle, so it seems as if not all swords marked with umbrellas were used by royals, but from the way it looked, it must have belonged to a royal.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you Jens! It seems when trying to learn more on the more esoteric properties of historic weapons whether in decoration, markings or features, the trade routes are invariably the deeper fiber of the fabric

"Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen,
and thinking what nobody has thought"
-Albert von Szent-Gyorgy

[rand]

This dagger with umbbrella is exhibited in "Splendeurs des Arns Orientales", page 93 and dates 1620-1630. In its description it is labeled as having a gold imperial umbrella mark.

Of interest it further states that it is inscribed "Sahibqiran-i Thani", which tells us it belonged to Shah Jahan, who known throughout his life as "Second Lord of the Conjunction", the first having been his forebearer.

Is interesting that this is an example of a metaphor being using to determine ownership, as particularly farsi was spoken more as poem the use of metaphors was commen and a compilation of these would become most useful to someone looking for clues for ownership. Mention farsi because of its use in the Mughal court.

Unfortunately there is no reference for why the umbrella is an imperial mark.

rand