Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 15. (Budapest, 1995)

GERELYES Ibolya: Oszmán-török dísztőrök az Esterházy-gyűjteményből

The double, steel blade is pierced in the middle. The upper and bottom parts of the front are inlaid with gold lotus flowers, rosettes and sedge leaves. On the two sides of the pierced patterns there is an inscription inlaid with gold. Written in Arabic letters, in Turkish nastaliq style

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, it is a couplet from a work by an unidentified Ottoman poet (111.3): „Hatt degildir hançeri üzre görünen asikâr kaîline ussakimn hiiccet çikarmis ol nigâr"

. Approximate translation: "There is no clear script on the hanjar: the beaty has been permitted to kill her lovers."

6 The decoration of the back of the blade is almost identical to that of the front, except that the inscription is replaced by a slightly stylized, rww/-style, double tendril. The curved handguard covers almost half of the pierced, goldset decoration of the upper part, which means that the blade was, undoubtedly, placed in the present hilt later on. (111. 4) The blade, sheath, hand-guard and the hilt were not originally composed together, therefore the pieces are worth examining one by one. With regard to the blade, this piece in the Esterházy Collection is far being unique among known Persian and Ottoman-Turkish daggers. Several European collections contain similarly pierced, gold inlaid daggers, inscribed with either Persian or Turkish couplets, sometimes in one language on one side and in the other language on the other.

7 Blades, on which the verse deals with the object itself - as in the case of the hanjar described above - form a separate category.

8 The writer of the words inscribed on a dagger - belonging to this category - in the Royal Scottish Collection in Edinburgh, has been identified as the Ottoman Necati, who died in 1509.

9 Opinions differ, however, concerning the age and origin of the blades. It seems to be certain that such blades were manufactured from the end of the fifteenth century, in Iranian workshops, belonging to the court of the Safavid monarchs. Most of these blades are decorated with highly elaborate poems written in Persian, in nastaliq style

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.The language and the style of the writing would indicate just Persian workshops if no Turkish piece (like the Esterházy dagger) or two language pieces were known. The paradox, however, can be solved, since both languages were used in the Safavid court at Tebriz and in the Constantinople seray of the Ottoman sultans. After the 1514 Battle at Chaldiran a great number of Iranian masters were brought to the court of Sultan Selim I (1512-1520).

11 It is therefore possible that a dagger in the collection of the Topkapi seray was also made by one such Iranian master, and can be considered one of the earliest parallels of the piece described above. According to the inscription engraved on the rock crystal grip, the object was made to commemorate Sultan Selim I's victory at Chaldiran in 1514. The double-edged, pierced, gold inlaid steel blade has no inscription, yet there is no reason to suppose that its date of manufacture differs from that of the dated grip. (111. 5)

12 The inlaid gold lotus flowers, sedge leaves and rosettes decorating the blade of the Esterházy dagger are examples typical of the stylistic trend originating from the Nakkashane in the seray, which, from the second quarter of the 16th century onwards, gradually gained ground in almost all areas of Ottoman decorative arts. The so-called .raz-style

13 depicted fantastic plants and animals. Its simpler version, known as the "sedge leaf-rosette" style, was soon adapted by goldsmiths!

4 The motifs on the blade of the dagger described above started to appear on Ottoman ceremonial daggers from the middle or second half of the sixteenth century. The supposed closest companion piece mentioned above is in a private collection: it has a jade hilt set with rubies, but its blade is decorated in the same way. Also, the curved dragon heads on its handguard are almost identical, as is the shape of its scabbard. Also, the three lines of rubies in settings sharply protruding from the background of embossed, chased lotus flowers, sedge leaves and rosettes indicate a similar artistic approach.

15 (111. 6). We know another dagger with inlaid gold lotus flowers, sedge leaves and roset-