CIRCA 1400
Details
A Fine Italian Medieval Hand-And-Half Sword With An Arabic Inscription
Circa 1400
The flat tapering double-edged blade with, on each face of the forte, two shallow fullers changing to one and then to a shallow medial ridge, engraved on each face with a saltire within a circle and on one face with an inscription in Nashki script, the tang struck twice with a triangle surmounted by a cross, long very slightly arched quillons, oval wheel pommel, and modern wooden cord-bound grip
34½in. (87.6cm.) blade
The inscription reads in translation 'Bequest of al-Malik al-Ashraf Barsbay in the hall of weapons in the frontier town of Alexandria in the days of Ala ad-din Agbugha al-Timrazi in the year 831 (A.D. 1427)
This sword was placed in the Arsenal at Alexandria, as the inscription records, by the Mamluk Sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Barsbay at the time when Agbugha al-Timrazi was governor, an office he held from 1422 to 1438. It was possibly loot from the capture of Cyprus from the Lusignan Kings in 1426 by the Mamluks, or else part of one of the resulting tributes paid to the latter, of which the first was in December 1427. See Et. Combe & A.F.C. de Cosson, 'European Swords with Arabic inscriptions from the Armoury of Alexandria', Bulletin de la Société Royale d'Archéologie d'Alexandrie, No. 31, 1937, pp. 225-46; Et. Combe, 'Nouveaux Sabres Européens à Inscriptions Arabes de l'Arsenal d'Alexandre', ibid, No. 32, 1938, pp. 158-61; D.G. Alexander, 'European Swords in the Collections of Istanbul, part 1, Swords from the Arsenal of Alexandria', Waffen- und Kostümkunde, vol. 27 (1985), pp. 81-118
Circa 1400
The flat tapering double-edged blade with, on each face of the forte, two shallow fullers changing to one and then to a shallow medial ridge, engraved on each face with a saltire within a circle and on one face with an inscription in Nashki script, the tang struck twice with a triangle surmounted by a cross, long very slightly arched quillons, oval wheel pommel, and modern wooden cord-bound grip
34½in. (87.6cm.) blade
The inscription reads in translation 'Bequest of al-Malik al-Ashraf Barsbay in the hall of weapons in the frontier town of Alexandria in the days of Ala ad-din Agbugha al-Timrazi in the year 831 (A.D. 1427)
This sword was placed in the Arsenal at Alexandria, as the inscription records, by the Mamluk Sultan al-Malik al-Ashraf Barsbay at the time when Agbugha al-Timrazi was governor, an office he held from 1422 to 1438. It was possibly loot from the capture of Cyprus from the Lusignan Kings in 1426 by the Mamluks, or else part of one of the resulting tributes paid to the latter, of which the first was in December 1427. See Et. Combe & A.F.C. de Cosson, 'European Swords with Arabic inscriptions from the Armoury of Alexandria', Bulletin de la Société Royale d'Archéologie d'Alexandrie, No. 31, 1937, pp. 225-46; Et. Combe, 'Nouveaux Sabres Européens à Inscriptions Arabes de l'Arsenal d'Alexandre', ibid, No. 32, 1938, pp. 158-61; D.G. Alexander, 'European Swords in the Collections of Istanbul, part 1, Swords from the Arsenal of Alexandria', Waffen- und Kostümkunde, vol. 27 (1985), pp. 81-118
Provenance
Anon. sale, Wallis & Wallis, Lewes, 13 September 1952, Lot 390
Claude Blair
Claude Blair
Literature
Claude Blair, European & American Arms, frontispiece
Exhibited
The Art of the Armourer, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1963, Cat. No. 67