A kind of pesh kabz, opinion and translation please

[francantolin]

Thank you all for your messages,

Mahratt, this one is your's ?
Do you think it is a "recent" 20th century model ?
The final tip is not large/strong enough ?

[mahratt]

Originally Posted by francantolin

Thank you all for your messages,

Mahratt, this one is your's ?
Do you think it is a "recent" 20th century model ?
The final tip is not large/strong enough ?

Hello, francantolin

No, this is not my dagger. But there are a lot of these items, made in the early 2000s for American soldiers who served in Afghanistan, on e-bay. The one I posted is definitely a tourist one.

Your dagger, I think, could have been used as a weapon. But from its appearance, I tend to think it's late 20th century.

[francantolin]

Hello dear members,

I finally got it ! ( I only had the seller pictures thats why I couldn't post more before)
The blade seems good and not recent work with what seems to me a large enough diamond section piercing mail tip.
Strange global shape indeed ,what I found interesting ,

For the inscriptions/engravings,
They are of better quality than I thought: deeply and finely engraved; I show them to a friend who read and makes arabic calligraphy and he couldn't translate the cartouche so maybe is it in afghan/ farsi ?

The scabbard sure, is a later ''invention''
Made of three part of what I think was a
bayonett or cutlass scabbard ( old european model ?)

So maybe all is an afghan mix ?

[mahratt]

Originally Posted by francantolin

Hello dear members,

I finally got it ! ( I only had the seller pictures thats why I couldn't post more before)
The blade seems good and not recent work with what seems to me a large enough diamond section piercing mail tip.
Strange global shape indeed ,what I found interesting ,

For the inscriptions/engravings,
They are of better quality than I thought: deeply and finely engraved; I show them to a friend who read and makes arabic calligraphy and he couldn't translate the cartouche so maybe is it in afghan/ farsi ?

The scabbard sure, is a later ''invention''
Made of three part of what I think was a
bayonett or cutlass scabbard ( old european model ?)

So maybe all is an afghan mix ?

I think you are right. This dagger is made in Afghanistan. But, it is enough to compare your item with traditional pesh-kabz daggers to see the differences. I marked them with arrows in the photo.
I think that your dagger is made in the middle of the 20th century under the influence of European models of knives and daggers.

However, I am sure that this item was not made for tourists and was used as a weapon.

[ariel]

We can speculate until cows come home, but as long as the cartouches are not read we will remain in the dark.

[mahratt]

Unfortunately, the inscriptions of the 20th century are unlikely to tell us anything interesting about the dagger. In this case, they are secondary. First of all, we should pay attention to the external signs of the dagger.

[ariel]

I still believe that decoding the texts will bring valuable information. Thus, I took a liberty to send a pm to Kwiatek ( no response yet) and asked some of my colleagues , native Urdu, Farsi and Pashto speakers , to lend a hand.
Will see what transpires.
Both scabbard and handle are obviously old replacements but the blade is an interesting one and francantolin’s personal assessment of it is careful and honest and deserves as good an answer as possible.