The blade of this dagger, which has a very fine watered steel pattern, was made in 1800-01, around 30 years before the hilt. The inscription on the hilt says that it was made in Kirman to the order of Hassan Khan, known as Agha Khan-i Beglarbegi. One side has his portrait, while the other side has a portrait of the Qajar ruler Muhammad Shah (ruled 1834-48), wearing a dagger very similar to this one tucked into his belt.
Hassan Khan was named as Agha Khan, the leader of the Nizari Ismaili sect of Shi'ite Islam, by Muhammad Shah's predecessor and grandfather, Fath Ali Shah. In 1838, he led a revolt against Muhammad Shah in Kirman, and was eventually defeated and exiled to India. So the hilt of this dagger, which the Agha Khan had commissioned specifically to show his close relationship with and loyalty to the Shah (Beglarbegi is the name of Muhammad Shah's maternal grandfather), must have been made before the1838 revolt.
Notes from the Glory and Prosperity exhibition, Feb - June 2002.
