SIGNED HAJJ MUHAMMAD SAHIB 'ALI AGHA, OTTOMAN TURKEY OR PROVINCES, DATED AH 122[0]/1805-06 AD

The fine gold-damascened inscription on the blade gives the name of the maker as Al-Hajj Muhammad Sahib 'Ali Agha and the date of AH 122[0]. The rosette between the two rectangular cartouches is filled in with a calligraphic composition giving the name of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus: 'Aliha, Mekshalina, Mathlina, Merthuke, Kafkshattiush, Shadnush and Marnush. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus refer to a group of young Christians who hid inside a cave to escape a persecution. Having fallen asleep inside the cave, they purportedly awoke more than a century later. The story, very popular in the Islamic world, is reported in the Qur'an (Qur'an XVIII, sura al-kahf).

A Greek yataghan with similar hilt, dated 1823-24 AD is published in Robert Elgood, The Arms of Greece and Her Balkan Neighbours in the Ottoman Period, London, 2009, cat.165, p.169.