Shamshir cartouche, calligraphy help

Jim McDougall · 6th December 2018, 08:25 PM

Thank you very much for the kind words Ibrahiim, much appreciated. I do have an accumulation of books indeed (my wife and this poor groaning RV will attest) but of course never as many as I wish.
Will, I have been remiss in not answering sooner, but I wanted to find the titles most useful to you. Ibrahiim has good connections with translation, and Oliver Pinchot is very much the authority on these....hopefully he might show up here as he does occasionally.

His article, "The Persian Shamshir: And The Signature of Assad Allah" (Vol. 40, #1, Feb.2002, 'Arms Collecting" journal....is most valuable and amazing insight into these swords and these markings. I think Ibrahim linked the article here as the journal went out of print some time ago.

An article in that same journal (Vol.12, #1) "Dating the Arms of Islam" by Pat Donnelly is also most helpful but again, hard to find.

In my opinion one of the most helpful books is "A Study of the Eastern Sword" by Kirill Rivkin and Brian Isaac (2017) which has not only a good number of Persian shamshirs and blades represented and beautifully explained as well as having sections on Ottoman, Caucasian, Mamluk, East European, Russian and others is a must for serious collectors.

This is an absolutely beautiful shamshir, one if the most enticing I have seen in a long time, and the bedu square makes it even more exciting!

6th December 2018, 08:25 PM	#1
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	Thank you very much for the kind words Ibrahiim, much appreciated. I do have an accumulation of books indeed (my wife and this poor groaning RV will attest) but of course never as many as I wish. Will, I have been remiss in not answering sooner, but I wanted to find the titles most useful to you. Ibrahiim has good connections with translation, and Oliver Pinchot is very much the authority on these....hopefully he might show up here as he does occasionally. His article, "The Persian Shamshir: And The Signature of Assad Allah" (Vol. 40, #1, Feb.2002, 'Arms Collecting" journal....is most valuable and amazing insight into these swords and these markings. I think Ibrahim linked the article here as the journal went out of print some time ago. An article in that same journal (Vol.12, #1) "Dating the Arms of Islam" by Pat Donnelly is also most helpful but again, hard to find. In my opinion one of the most helpful books is "A Study of the Eastern Sword" by Kirill Rivkin and Brian Isaac (2017) which has not only a good number of Persian shamshirs and blades represented and beautifully explained as well as having sections on Ottoman, Caucasian, Mamluk, East European, Russian and others is a must for serious collectors. This is an absolutely beautiful shamshir, one if the most enticing I have seen in a long time, and the bedu square makes it even more exciting!