Ottoman Hancer for translation

motan · 15th March 2020, 11:45 PM

Hi Kubur,
I mostly agree with you. The problem starts with the concept of Ottoman weapons. Turkey must have had centers of production, but weapons were made throughout the Ottoman empire, often in local style, or sometimes in local style imitating another local style of a different region. So, is a pre-wwi Syrian dagger per definition Ottman? Is a Kindjal made in Damascus Caucasian, Syrian or Ottoman?
You are right about Damascus. It was a center of high quality production before 1800, but very few daggers of high quality are designated as Syrian. Certainly this one is of high quality and if it says "made in Damascus", why should I not believe that?
As for the date, most of you think these daggers must be from the 19th century. Still, the blades do not look like Persian, they are made of high quality wootz, like the court daggers. Does anyone know centers of wootz production west of Persia? To me, the numbers could be (1)195 = 1781. Then it is what it looks like. Inverted 6 is possible if this is not a date, because (1)695 is still in the future.
Anyway, it looks like an Albanian type dagger made in Damascus, most probably ordered by an Albanian commander named Osman in late 18th. century. As for the question of Albanian type vs Persian/Caucasian. mmm. I don't know.

15th March 2020, 11:45 PM	#16
motan Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Jerusalem Posts: 274	Hi Kubur, I mostly agree with you. The problem starts with the concept of Ottoman weapons. Turkey must have had centers of production, but weapons were made throughout the Ottoman empire, often in local style, or sometimes in local style imitating another local style of a different region. So, is a pre-wwi Syrian dagger per definition Ottman? Is a Kindjal made in Damascus Caucasian, Syrian or Ottoman? You are right about Damascus. It was a center of high quality production before 1800, but very few daggers of high quality are designated as Syrian. Certainly this one is of high quality and if it says "made in Damascus", why should I not believe that? As for the date, most of you think these daggers must be from the 19th century. Still, the blades do not look like Persian, they are made of high quality wootz, like the court daggers. Does anyone know centers of wootz production west of Persia? To me, the numbers could be (1)195 = 1781. Then it is what it looks like. Inverted 6 is possible if this is not a date, because (1)695 is still in the future. Anyway, it looks like an Albanian type dagger made in Damascus, most probably ordered by an Albanian commander named Osman in late 18th. century. As for the question of Albanian type vs Persian/Caucasian. mmm. I don't know.