Cleveland Museum of Art

Dagger (Khanjali) with Scabbard

Date

1700s–1800s

Medium

carnelian?, steel, wood handle, copper alloy, and silver gilt

Culture

Transcaucasian, Georgian

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

A khanjali is a dagger popular with the inhabitants of Georgia and the rest of the Caucasus since ancient times. They often have a single offset groove on each face of the blade and the shape is similar to the ancient Roman gladius and the Scottish dirk. Scabbards for daggers like these are usually highly engraved with gold or silver designs and can sometimes include embedded gemstones.

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