A niello silver-hilted finely watered-steel sword (kilij) signed by Muhammad Yusuf Misri
Persia, the blade 18th Century
the single-edged watered steel blade of curved form with flattened spine, yelman and double-edged section towards point, the fuller with series of short fullers beside, decorated in gold overlay with floral and vegetal decoration and two inscription-filled cartouches surmounted by an inscription-filled roundel, the niello and gilt-silver crossguard and grips, foliate quillons, the wood scabbard clad entirely in silver decorated in niello with floral interlace with perching birds, an inscription to one side
95 cm. long
Footnotes:
Provenance
The Mohammed Khalil Collection.

Published
M. K. Ibrahim, Islamic Arms and Armour, Vol. II, United Arab Emirates, 2022, p. 841, cat. no. 699.

Inscriptions: in the centre of the roundel, 'amal-i muhammad yusuf misri 12, 'The work of Muhammad Yusuf Misri 12'; in the border of the roundel, a Persian couplet, agar khwahi ba-ruz-i razm bar dushman shavi ghalib
ba tigh-i khud bukun nam-i 'ali ibn abi talib, 'If on the day of battle you wish to be overcome the enemy, Then put the name of 'Ali ibn Abi Talib on your sword'; in the two cartouches, a Persian couplet, la fata illa 'ali la sayf illa dhu'l-faqar, har bala'i pish ayad tu bakhwan haftad bar, 'For every calamity that appears, recite seventy times!' 'There is no hero but 'Ali, no sword but Dhu'l-Faqar!''; to the scabbard, 'amal wisam 'abd al-razzaq, 'The work of Wisam 'Abd al-Razzaq'.

Two swords by the same maker are listed in L.A. Mayer, Islamic Armourers and Their Works, Geneva, 1962, p. 62. The first is in the Tsarskoe Selo Palace Collection, St. Petersburg, and the second is described as being in the collection of a Polish general.
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