19th century Indian Zulfikar sword

 An interesting and unusual Indian sword with a rare blade shape ‘Zulfiqar’ having a ‘split’ blade tip with reference to the broken sword of Ali, the head of the Shia branch of Islam and cousin to Mohammed, the prophet. The blade is of good forged steel the forked top sharpened to all sides including the back edge, a dot possibly originally inlaid laies just behind the tip. There are four small stamped makerd marks to the upper half of the blade, two to each face. The hilt of steel, deeply chiselled and overlaid with thick silver. In good condition and dating to the 19th century, probably originating from North India. indo persian