Laz Bichaq - Black Sea Yatagan
 

My new acquisition - a very pretty, small Laz Bichaq, blade is only 53 cm., with the scribed and bras-inlaid decorations of much better quality than most examples I have seen. On the reverse side of the blade there appear to be some letters in a vignette, and possibly a date to the left of it, in another vignette, which were difficult to photograph. I wonder if someone can make them out.

Interesting piece. Nice and not all have the brass inlay.

Hi Dimitry
we did what was possible to do ... at our; level and knowledge :p

- MASH ALLAH either WHAT EVER ALLAH WILLS'
- SUBHRAN ALLAH either GLORY/PRAISE BE TO ALLAH

religious invocations,
unfortunately, we didn't discerned any digit, could give us a date indication :shrug:

à +

Dom

Dom, thank you very much indeed!!! Shukran Jasilan!

The invocation of Allah rules out the ownership by a Pontian Greek.

afwan Dimitry
in Egypt some Christian Churchs (Roman) i.e. Melkit, are using Arabic language for the religious offices,
when they keep records as well as; birth, wedding, funerals are done in ... Arabic :p

and "God" in Arabic language, whatever the religion, is translated by "Allah"

the Coptic monks or Popes (Orthodox Greek obedience) they said "Al-Hamdoulillah "
when they want to said "thanks to the Holy Providence" ;)
there is no sharp border between each community :p

à +

Dom

Beautifully done and well said Dom!!!Thank you so much for adding this detail to this most interesting example. While the decoration is indeed attractive it is even better to understand its important meaning.

All the best,
Jim

Ahh, but this isn't about Egypt. :)

In respect to the Greek-provenanced pieces, I have noticed that the blades of Greek knives, for instance, tend to be inscribed in Greek, and sometimes dated in Gregorian. Also, one of the Laz Bichaqs discussed on the forum, was engraved 1881 in European numerals.
Imho, if this were a Pontian Greek-owned LB, perhaps it would've had some more Greek to it. But we might never know... :)

Dmitry
nothing strange,
I have a Syrian dagger type Damascus,
with on hilt a date engraving in Arabic,
but Gregorian calendar :p

à +

Dom

I shouldn't have ruled out the Greeks. :)
Here are some more photos. The grip is quite small, this may have been a child's sword.