Khyber Knife
 

Hi all, it's been ages since I posted anything. Work, family and a feeling of inferiority in knowledge has kept me from posting as I only seem to ask, not give from the more academic collectors in the Forum. My apologies again for asking, I aspire to be more active in the future and hopefully add to the wealth of knowledge within it.

I purchased this Khyber knife at auction a few years ago. There were two swords in the lot, the first was a nice damascus French sword which I now believe to be an Indian fake. The second sword is this sword form Afghanistan.

I'm hoping someone can read the Arabic inscription. After looking at it for a few years I think it says : Made by ....

The thoughts of the Forum are most welcome.

Greg

I'll post the fake shortly as the is a valuable lesson there as well. :(

Please, don't ever feel this way about the forums Greg; all with an interest are welcome here regardless of knowledge level.

Very nice find. This was made for a government official or maybe someone well off, I am not abreast on my history any more but the name sounds familiar. It was most likely made in the blacksmiths rd, (Kocha e Aahangaraan) in Kabul. Anyways on to the translation; I could not make out part of it, maybe some better pictures might help but no guarantee. Number one is (farmaayesh e) meaning ordered by, I could not make the next set of words. Number 3 is (Abdul Qaader Khan) the name of the person ordering it. Number 2 is the year, again it is not clear but I am gonna go with 1276, this would be based on the lunar calendar, so about 150 years ago give or take a few since I am not sure what year it is now.

Thanks so much AJ1356 for taking a stab at translating the inscription. The date appears to be approximately 1860.

For the Forum, it there a "typical" format to such inscriptions? What are the most common inscriptions? As AJ wasn't able to translate the 4th word, what is it most likely to be based on typical inscriptions?

Regards,

Greg