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."
*
