The Topkapi Dagger is an eighteenth century Ottoman gold dagger in the Imperial Treasury of Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. Three emeralds are set along its hilt, and a fourth forms a lid over a small watch made in London. Sultan Mahmud the First had it made as a gift for Nadir Shah of Iran; the Shah was killed in 1747 before it arrived, so it stayed in the treasury. The 1964 film Topkapi is about a plot to steal it.
If you are asking where the Topkapi Dagger is: it is in the Imperial Treasury, in the Third Court of Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. If you are asking why it is famous: partly for the emeralds, partly for a gift that never reached the man it was made for, and partly for a film.
What you see
Find the dagger with three emeralds set along its gold hilt. At the very top of the hilt a single emerald forms a lid, and under it is a small watch, made in London. The sheath is decorated with enamelled fruit in a basket.
Descriptions do not all agree. The museum-based account of 2019 puts the three emeralds on the hilt, while the historian Mehmet Önder, writing in 1985, placed the large emeralds on the sheath. This article follows the first.
A gift for Nadir Shah
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Sultan Mahmud the First had the dagger made as a present for Nadir Shah, the ruler of Iran. In May 1747 an Ottoman embassy set out with it and other gifts. That summer Nadir Shah was killed. The news reached the embassy at the Iranian border, the gifts were never delivered, and the dagger came back to the treasury to stay.
The diplomacy went both ways. Nadir Shah had sent Mahmud the First a throne, and that throne, now called the Nadir Shah Throne, is shown in the Treasury's third hall among the diplomatic gifts. So the same room holds a gift that arrived from Iran and a gift that never got there.
The second life: Topkapi, 1964
Two centuries later the dagger found a new audience. The 1964 film Topkapi built its whole plot around a gang of thieves trying to steal it from the palace. In the film they are caught, and the dagger goes back where it belongs. Some sources give the film's date as 1963; its general release was 1964.
The room around it
The Treasury fills the Conqueror's Pavilion, built by Mehmed the Second and used as the palace treasury from the start. It reopened on 20 April 2023 after nine years of repairs, with more than 1,100 objects in four halls: the early sultans, ceremony and sovereignty, diplomatic gifts, and the sultan as caliph. The sources do not say which hall the dagger is in, so look for it as you go. In the first hall is the Spoonmaker's Diamond, ringed by 49 brilliants.
How to see it
In the Treasury, follow the signs about photography; flash is not allowed anywhere in the palace. Displays move from time to time, so a case may have changed. In the Roamer guide the Topkapi Dagger has its own story in the Treasury, and it is a stop on the Topkapi Palace in an Hour and The Courts and the Harem in Three Hours routes. You can listen at your own pace, with no group, and skip anything you do not want. The guide is independent and not affiliated with the palace, and admission is separate. Start here: the Topkapi Palace guide, or read the whole visit in Topkapi Palace: what to see, court by court.
Cover: Topkapi Palace above the shore, seen from the water. Photograph by Alp, Pexels. The Treasury's objects are not photographed here.
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