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Lot Essay
The owner's name as it appears on the calligraphic medallion inlaid with gold on the blade reads Sayyid Muhammad 'Ali Shah bin Sayyid ... Shah Ma'nawi (?). The signature on the Persian blade reads "The work of Muhammad Kazim Shirazi". The other inscription on that side is a couplet in Persian.
Another sword by this maker was in the Leo S. Figiel Collection (L.S.Figiel, On Damascus Steel, New York, 1991, pp.84-5). That sword was dated AH [1]128/1715-16 AD, showing this maker to have been active in the late Safavid period. He was also commissioned by Shah Sultan Husayn to make a steel penbox, dated 1109/1697-8 or 1119/1707-8 now in the Shrine of the Imam Reza, Mashhad (J. Allan & B. Gilmour, Persian Steel, The Tanavoli Collection, Oxford, 2000, pp. 30, 204, 287 & 524).
A sword signed by Muhammad Kazim Shirazi that belonged to the Talpur ruler Murad 'Ali Khan (d. 1833 AD) was sold at Christie's, 12 October 2004, lot 63.
Another sword by this maker was in the Leo S. Figiel Collection (L.S.Figiel, On Damascus Steel, New York, 1991, pp.84-5). That sword was dated AH [1]128/1715-16 AD, showing this maker to have been active in the late Safavid period. He was also commissioned by Shah Sultan Husayn to make a steel penbox, dated 1109/1697-8 or 1119/1707-8 now in the Shrine of the Imam Reza, Mashhad (J. Allan & B. Gilmour, Persian Steel, The Tanavoli Collection, Oxford, 2000, pp. 30, 204, 287 & 524).
A sword signed by Muhammad Kazim Shirazi that belonged to the Talpur ruler Murad 'Ali Khan (d. 1833 AD) was sold at Christie's, 12 October 2004, lot 63.