Help with Arabic/Farsi translations?

FenrisWolf · 21st January 2007, 06:44 AM

Hello to the board!

I'm new here, and while I've been collecting ethnographic edged weapons for a while, my knowledge of them is fairly limited. I know enough to be able to usually figure out roughly where something originated (Africa, Asia, India, eic.), and I've managed to pick up a bit more specific knowledge about individual pieces, but for the most part I can't claim more than a layman's "Ooh! Pretty!" knowledge of blades.

That being said, I have several pieces in my collection I'd love to learn more about. One is a small dagger from the Middle East, probably Persia, with a plain hilt and a beautifully worked blade, complete with two inscriptions, one in Arabic and the other in (I think) Farsi. I took it into a local middle eastern deli, and they put me in touch with an Iranian gentlemen gave me a very rough translation. He said one side was a passage from the Koran, the other was an inscription from the smith, something along the lines of 'made in the manner of the sword of the prophet' or words to that effect, and what I *think* is a date. IF it is, and it's in the Arabic calender, it would date the blade to the 1500s. Anyway, here are some pics:

The other dagger I know much less about, other than to suspect it to be Italian, 18th or 19th century, and intended for less than savory purposes. There's no inscription, but there is a brass proofmark in the blade with a signature resembling a stylized man's face with mustache and goatee cut into the metal.

Any help with translating the inscriptions and/or identifying these two daggers will be greatly appreciated! And afterwards, if people don't object too strenuously, I have others I'd like to get people's opinions on (which is really a thinly veiled way of gloating and saying 'look what I got!', but you all knew that, right?)

Thanks in advance,
Fenris

21st January 2007, 06:44 AM	#1
FenrisWolf Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 181	Help with Arabic/Farsi translations? Hello to the board! I'm new here, and while I've been collecting ethnographic edged weapons for a while, my knowledge of them is fairly limited. I know enough to be able to usually figure out roughly where something originated (Africa, Asia, India, eic.), and I've managed to pick up a bit more specific knowledge about individual pieces, but for the most part I can't claim more than a layman's "Ooh! Pretty!" knowledge of blades. That being said, I have several pieces in my collection I'd love to learn more about. One is a small dagger from the Middle East, probably Persia, with a plain hilt and a beautifully worked blade, complete with two inscriptions, one in Arabic and the other in (I think) Farsi. I took it into a local middle eastern deli, and they put me in touch with an Iranian gentlemen gave me a very rough translation. He said one side was a passage from the Koran, the other was an inscription from the smith, something along the lines of 'made in the manner of the sword of the prophet' or words to that effect, and what I think is a date. IF it is, and it's in the Arabic calender, it would date the blade to the 1500s. Anyway, here are some pics: The other dagger I know much less about, other than to suspect it to be Italian, 18th or 19th century, and intended for less than savory purposes. There's no inscription, but there is a brass proofmark in the blade with a signature resembling a stylized man's face with mustache and goatee cut into the metal. Any help with translating the inscriptions and/or identifying these two daggers will be greatly appreciated! And afterwards, if people don't object too strenuously, I have others I'd like to get people's opinions on (which is really a thinly veiled way of gloating and saying 'look what I got!', but you all knew that, right?) Thanks in advance, Fenris