Arts of the Islamic World & India

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 113. A watered-steel dagger (peshkabz) with marine-ivory hilt dedicated to Shah Isma'il I (r.1501-24), Persia, Safavid, dated 925 AH/1519-20 AD.

A watered-steel dagger (peshkabz) with marine-ivory hilt dedicated to Shah Isma'il I (r.1501-24), Persia, Safavid, dated 925 AH/1519-20 AD

Restricted Species

Auction Closed

October 25, 04:59 PM GMT

Estimate

30,000 - 50,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

the curved watered-steel blade chiselled around the forte on both sides with split palmettes and arabesques, with broad flatted back overlaid with a gold trefoil motif, the marine-ivory hilt in two sections divided by a steel band with inscriptions and overlaid in gold

44.1cm. length

Please note that there may be restrictions on the import of property of Iranian origin into the USA and some or all member countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council. Any buyers planning to import property of Iranian origin into any of these countries should satisfy themselves of the relevant import regime. Sotheby's will not assist buyers with the shipment of such items into the USA or the GCC. In addition, FedEx and US courier services will no longer carry Iranian-origin goods to any location. Any shipment services would need to be provided by a Fine Art shipping company.

inscriptions:

In nasta'liq:

hasb al-irshad shah isma'il safavi waliyeh (sic) iran khanjar behbud tayyar shodeh sanah 925

'The dagger has been prepared by the order of Shah Isma'il Safavi, the governor (sic) of Iran, the year 925 (1519-20 AD)'

In Arabic:

li khamsah atfa biha hurr al-waba al-hatimah

al-mustafa wa al-murtada wa [a]bnahuma [wa] al-fatimah

'I have five (persons) by whom I extinguish crushing plague (cholera):

al-Mustafa (i.e Prophet Muhammad), al-Murtada (i.e. ‘Ali) and their sons (i.e. Hasan and Husayn) and Fatimah'

The treatment of the split-palmette decoration around the forte of the blade relates to the gold arabesque found on the black jade jug inscribed with the name of Shah Isma'il in the Topkapi Saray (see S. Canby, The Golden Age of Persian Art, London, 1999, fig.14, p.27). This distinctive spiraling arabesque is also found in contemporaneous manuscript illumination and in the tilework of the Harun-i Vilayat in Isfahan which was completed in 1512.