Subject: ayan provincial warlord

Culture: Ottoman Turk

Setting: Rumelia-Anatolia 1792-1839

Object: hancer dagger

Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor *

"Dagger Steel, damascened with gold, silver-gilt, ivory

Grip and blade: Turkish, Ottoman period, 16th century

Guard: Turkish, Ottoman period, hallmarked for 1774-89

The green-stained ivory grip is carved with a delicacy that recalls many ivory objects made for the Ottoman court.

The blade is inscribed in Turkish and Persian (the languages used at the Ottoman court):

I besought a drink of water from your trenchant dagger, what if but once you should let me drink,

what would you lose? If I thirst, his dagger is not laid down."

* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery

"Dagger (khanjar) Turkish, late 18th century

The hilt of this khanjar is made from blue glass engraved

with flowers and foliage and originally set with rubies.

The use of glass as a medium for a hilt is unusual."