knife is Bosnian, but the scabbard most probably not original.not style of that knife. old but a replacement. perhaps by a bayonet leather? the tip mounting of the scabbard is a bad later repair too. but koftgari on the blade is very beautiful sample. Inscription can be Turkish or one of Bosnian and Albanian languages which has Turkish words in them. One thing is clear . Assuming the wowels are not proper, it writes "Hersek" , Herzegovina was called "Hersek" in Ottoman period. and, "yardavud" could be instead "arnavud" , which means "Albanian". Can be roughly something like "Albanian Mustafa from Herzegovina made(sanat) in 1299".
Raja Muda, did you put the vowels according to the translation or just guessing so?
Last edited by erlikhan; 7th March 2005 at 11:14 AM.
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