Ottoman Yataghan inscription on the blade

[Conduit]

Would you please help me to translate the inscription engraved on the yataghan's blade and possibly date it.
Many thanks for your help.

[Saracen]

The engraving on the blade and the inscription are quite standard.
It is very common and characteristic of Greek yataghans and in this form as here I would define it at the very end of the 18th century and in the first two decades of the 19th century (until 1826).
Approximate translation of the inscription: From the sight of this knife, your enemies are scattered, he takes revenge on the enemy like Zulfikar.
Only the photo is upside down. In the stamp, I think the name is Ali.
IMHO the blade is a little older than the handle and the handle is Cretan.
This is a very good yataghan.

[Conduit]

Originally Posted by Saracen

The engraving on the blade and the inscription are quite standard.
It is very common and characteristic of Greek yataghans and in this form as here I would define it at the very end of the 18th century and in the first two decades of the 19th century (until 1826).
Approximate translation of the inscription: From the sight of this knife, your enemies are scattered, he takes revenge on the enemy like Zulfikar.
Only the photo is upside down. In the stamp, I think the name is Ali.
IMHO the blade is a little older than the handle and the handle is Cretan.
This is a very good yataghan.

Thank you very much for your help and this comprehensive information. For some reason forum turns images upside down when I attach them positioned correctly.
May I wonder why 1826 is a cut-off date in your estimate?

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Conduit

...May I wonder why 1826 is a cut-off date in your estimate?

A very important time in the history of Greek-Ottoman relations.

[eftihis]

While i agree that this is a cretan yataghan, i dont think that the date 1826 has any significance as far as yataghan construction is concerned. Yes the yanijar corps were abolished at that date, but this had no influence in yataghan production!

[kwiatek]

A more literal translation of this Turkish couplet is

“The entire enemy are scattered at this knife’s blow,
It takes revenge on the enemy like Zülfikar.”


zarbından bu bıçağın cümle düşman tar-ü mar
intikam alır düşmandan sanki misli zülfikar

There is a maker’s mark which reads “Ahmed”

[Saracen]

Originally Posted by eftihis

While i agree that this is a cretan yataghan, i dont think that the date 1826 has any significance as far as yataghan construction is concerned. Yes the yanijar corps were abolished at that date, but this had no influence in yataghan production!

I apologize for the late and very long (and probably not very literate in the language ) text, but such an event could not but affect such an attribute of the Janissaries as yataghan.
It was not just the abolition of the Janissary corps. Mahmud II was not going to forgive the janissaries for the murder of Selim (with whom he spent many months in the Seraglio during the reign of Mustafa and studied with Selim), in which he was almost killed himself (he was saved by a concubine, she hid him in a pile of pillows).
He had been preparing this action for a long time and thoughtfully and approached it very seriously in order to erase even the memory of the janissaries (and all their attributes).
For several years, Mahmud did not react in any way to complaints from residents from all over the empire about oppression by the Janissaries.
As a result, at the time of their revolt, all the residents joined the liquidation of the Janissaries (Mahmoud only needed to deploy Sanjak-Scherif).
First in Istanbul, and after the sultan's firman on the liquidation of the corps and throughout the empire. After that, the locals destroyed everything connected with the Janissaries.
Even their gravestones and their widows. The European diplomats who were in Istanbul at the time have a description of a case when the widows of the janissaries came to the square because they were left without homes and husbands.
They were promised to settle them on the Asian coast. They put them on longboats, but in the middle of the Bosphorus they pierced the bottoms of these ships and flooded them.
At that time, people even died for tattooing the orta sign on their hand, possession of a yataghan (especially its production) was too risky.