When a Persian Shamshir Becomes a Malay Sundang...sort of...

[AJ1356]

This a very nice example of cross national items.
The peoples of Persia, Afghanistan and India took Islam to these areas, and it is quite likely this was a battle field pick up.

The blade was made in the Safavid royal arsenal, which Assadullah apparently had worked at one time. It bears the lion seal of the royal arsenal and the familiar Quranic script of the era.
Right about the lion seal is یا قاضی الحاجات yaa qaazi al haajaat and on the opposite side is لا حول و الله قوت الابالله العلی و العظیم laa hawl o wallah quwat u ellah bellah e alali ul azim.

Just noticed under it all it read یا فتاح yaa fataah,
I'll leave it for one of our native Arabic speakers to give you the meaning.

[David R]

Nice piece, could be a "rescue" of a broken blade, done back in the day of it's use. But no matter, a very nice find whatever the history.

[RSWORD]

Very nice piece Charles! Man, if only these things could talk. I think your theory is a good one and illustrates how someone living in a new country might blend all the cultural influences into one piece. So if it was a Chinese man living in Malaysia at the time very well could have wanted to utilize a familiar hand guard from his own country but to fit into the local community mounted it up with a Sundang hilt and then to show their wealth a bit, sport an exotic wootz blade to boot. I think that is very plausible.

As far as the inscriptions, these trade blades typically have the same inscription. If it follows suit, the inscription beneath the lion would read "Oh fulfiller of needs" and the long inscription panel would roughly translate as 'There is no might nor will save with God, the exalted, the almighty".

[Sajen]

Again, outstanding and a presumably theory.

[Runjeet Singh]

Although I am not a collector of cross-cultural items such as yourself Charles, I am fascinated by them, and I hope one day you will publish your collection, so we can all enjoy and learn from your passion and research of these unique items.

Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Runjeet

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Akaalarms

Although I am not a collector of cross-cultural items such as yourself Charles, I am fascinated by them, and I hope one day you will publish your collection, so we can all enjoy and learn from your passion and research of these unique items.
Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Runjeet

Thanks Runjeet, but a book would not be likely. There's just too much based on conjecture and theory. Sometimes cross cultural pieces seem to have obvious origins or reasons for various combinations, but it would be very difficult to put together a scholarly work without solid proof. Nothing more than a picture catalog of proposed cross cultural pieces could be produced, as you have suggested.

Nevertheless, until there is proof, guessing, wondering, theorizing and using a little imagination sure is fun!!

[Battara]

Well Charles you could do what some authors do - lie, fabricate, make up whole stories out of the air...........

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by David R

Nice piece, could be a "rescue" of a broken blade, done back in the day of it's use. But no matter, a very nice find whatever the history.

Hi David,

I considered that this might have been a broken blade, but I really don't think so. Were it a broken blade the only thing that would need to be done would be refashioning the point. In this case far more effort than that has gone into transforming this blade.