Yataghan translation and origin
 

Good afternoon y'all, I recently came into possession of a fairly nice yataghan which appears to have a long and hard life. It appears that blade may have been a bit thicker and longer but was ground down to damage or wear. The blade is still very sharp for sure. My knowledge of Ottoman script is nonexistent but my research skills are a bit better. The date inscription seems to point to a manufacture date of 1182 by the Hijri Calendar meaning 1768 by the Gregorian. The handwriting ability of the blade smith is about as good as my translation skills which isn't saying much. All I can maybe decipher is "Made by Kareem/Karem/Kerem"??? Though this may be completely wrong. One additional note is that a tag came on the sword saying it was purchased in 1971 in Sarajevo. I'd appreciate any info y'all might be able to clean from the images.

Any help y'all might be able to offer would be welcome.

Hi 10thRoyal. Welcome to the Forum. I'm no expert on Islamic inscriptions but there are certainly people here who are. Hopefully, one of them will be along shortly to assist you. Good to see you here.

Ian.

The inscriptions are

عمل محرم

'Work of Muharram (Muharrem in Turkish spelling)"

صاحب محمود پاشا سنه ١١٨٢

"The owner Mahmud Pasha. Year 1182 (1768-9)"

Hi kwiatek, that certainly would be interesting to have this be owned by someone as high level as a pasha. The location that this yataghan was found and the general time frame do line up with Kara Mahmud Pasha and Mehmed Pasha Bushati governing parts of the area. Looking back through the forum history, I believe I've found another example of Muharrem's work!

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14536

After doing a bit more digging, is there any evidence that yataghan's or similar ottoman blades would be inscribed as belonging to the regional governor or official versus the actual owner/wielder of the weapon? For example, theoretically this blade "belongs" to Mahmud Pasha in that it was part of his arsenal and issued to one of his men?