THE BLADE SIGNED MUHAMMAD YUSUF MISRI, SAFAVID IRAN, DATED AH [1]115 / 1703-4 AD

Details

A SWORD (SHAMSHIR)
THE BLADE SIGNED MUHAMMAD YUSUF MISRI, SAFAVID IRAN, DATED AH [1]115 / 1703-4 AD
The curved watered steel blade with false edge, with one true fuller and one fuller repeatedly interrupted and hooked at the base, with fine floral inlay between gaps in the fuller and inlaid roundel containing the signature and date surrounded by a nasta‘liq couplet in Persian, the watered steel guard with dense floral design in inlaid and overlaid gold, with walrus ivory grips over a steel core with chiselled and gold overlaid floral motifs, the pommel cap with chiselled inscriptions on both sides, the moulded leather scabbard with vegetal motifs, the steel belt mounts decorated en suite with the hilt, the later silvered steel chape chiselled with vegetal motifs, the gold overlay on one quillon partly restored
Sword 38in. (96.4cm.) long; scabbard 34 ½in. (87.2cm.) long

Provenance

Collection of Howard Ricketts by 1984

Engraved

On the blade in the centre of the roundel, amal-e muhammad yusuf misri [1]115, ‘The work of Muhammed Yusuf Misri, [1]115’
In the outer roundel, agar khahi ke ruz-e razm bar dushman shavi ghalib, bokon tigh-e khod nam-e ali ibn ali talib, ‘If on the day of battle you want to overcome the enemy, put the name of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib on your sword’
On the pommel cap, ya mannan ya hannan, ‘O Benefactor’ ‘O Compassionate One’

Further Details

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Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

The Persian-language inscription of a strongly Shi‘i character on the present blade, as well as on other blades signed by Muhammad Yusuf Misri (‘the Egyptian’), combined with the dates on surviving swords, suggests that he was active in Safavid Iran during the reigns of Sulayman I (r.1666-94) and Sultan Husayn (r.1694-1722). The exceptional skill of the swordsmith is evident in the fine pattern of the watered steel.

In 1962, L.A. Mayer recorded two swords signed by Muhammad Yusuf Misri, one then in the Tsarskoe Selo Collection, Saint Petersburg, and another in the collection of a Polish general (L.A. Meyer, Islamic Armourers and Their Works, Geneva, 1962, p.62). A high-quality sword in the Military Museum, Tehran, inscribed ‘work of Misri Mu‘allam’ can be attributed to the first two years of the reign of Sulayman I (1666-8) and suggests either a long working career for Muhammad Yusuf, or a multigenerational workshop under the nisba ‘Misri’ (372; Manouchehr Moshtagh Khorasani, Arms and Armor from Iran: The Bronze Age to the End of the Qajar Period, Tübingen, 2006, pp.168, 176, 444). A sword by Muhammad Yusuf Misri and dated AH [1]102 / 1690-1 AD was sold at Bonhams London, 21 May 2024, lot 13.

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