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A narrow metal blade that is a detailed floral pattern engraved throughout. The handle is short and stout with little details.

A narrow metal blade that is shown horizontally on a grey background. The blade points to the right. The blade is engraved with a detailed floral pattern throughout. The floral pattern turns into Arabic script near the bottom. The handle is a stout hourglass shape with little details and black discoloring.

Gallery Text

The works in this case were produced during the reigns of two dynasties that forged empires in the Iranian region: the Timurids (1370–1506) and the Safavids (1501–1722). The Central Asian warlord Timur concentrated in his capital city of Samarkand artists gathered from a vast empire stretching from Syria to India. Timur’s descendants ruled over a greatly reduced realm—parts of Iran and Afghanistan—but gained renown as patrons of the arts. The Timurid system of organizing artists into workshops in which designs were developed for the book arts and for dissemination into other media was emulated by later dynasties, notably the Safavids and Ottomans. Arising in northwestern Iran, the Safavids united all of greater Iran under their rule and established Shiʿi Islam as the state religion, as distinct from the Sunni branch practiced in the surrounding states.

Cultural exchange and industrial competition increased in these centuries, both across and beyond Islamic lands. Responding to the courts’ avid consumption of Chinese blue-and-white wares, Persian potters appropriated Chinese shapes, compositions, and motifs in their own works. In contrast, the colorful dish with scale patterns probably reflects the highly successful products of the Ottoman kilns to the west, in Iznik.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2011.523
Title
Dagger Blade, Etched with Arabesques and Arabic
Classification
Weapons and Ammunition
Work Type
dagger
Date
17th century
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan
Period
Safavid period
Culture
Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/188224

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2550, Art from Islamic Lands, The Middle East and North Africa
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Steel
Dimensions
25.5 cm (10 1/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: Blade inscribed with a verse from the Quran: “And what is my prosperity save through God?” (Quran 11:88).
    A name or a nisba appears close to the handle “bandah shah wilayat Husayn sultan”.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Stuart Cary Welch, Jr., Warner, New Hampshire (by 1999-2008), by inheritance; to Edith I. Welch, Warner, New Hampshire (2008-2011), gift; to Harvard Art Museums 2011.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch
Accession Year
2011
Object Number
2011.523
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
This dagger blade is etched with an intricate vegetal scroll motif and inscribed in Arabic with a verse from the Quran: “And what is my prosperity save through God?” (Quran 11:88). Furthermore, a name or a nisba appears close to the handle “Shah Wilayat the slave (follower) of Husayn Sultan” (bandah shah wilayat Husayn sultan), and may be linked to the Safavid ruler Shah Sultan-Husayn (r. 1694-1722). Similar inscriptions appear on earlier Safavid seals (see Encyclopedia of Islam “khatam”).

Exhibition History

  • Re-View: Arts of India & the Islamic Lands, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/26/2008 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 2550 Islamic, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu