Peshkabz in Sindh? One Man's text
 

Possibility of Peshkabz/Choora blades in Sindhi territory?

There is a description of some old weapons provided by Christopher Ondaatje, in his book Sind Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Sir Richard Francis Burton.

http://www.google.com/search?q=chris...=1&btnG=Search

Alas, he gives no photograph of the items.

Mr Ondaatje made his visit in 1996. He appreciates blades. This quoted portion illustrates how one cannot just buy and take.

Gentlemen, thank you again.

My curiosity began shortly after 9-11 when I tried to understand the predicament we were in.

Became interested in the region, the people and then, slowly, became curious about the knives.

One bias of mine is I like straight bladed knives. No disputing matters of taste.

For great good fun, there's a book by Alice Albinia entitled Empires of the Indus, published just recently, and easy to find.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008...travel.history

Albinia travelled the course of the Indus, post 9-11, mostly in Pakistan, with side trips into India (Punjab and Ladakh) ending at Mt Kailash. She gives ample information about Sindh, the Punjab on both sides of the post Partition border, and a very long visit into the Khyber, and on both sides of the Durand line. She showed admirable capacity to travel there on the region's own terms.

Albinia does not directly describe knife culture - by that time the automatic rifle has dominated - but she does give us context and a lot of the regions history and archeology -- all of which would have shaped cultures - and it is the cultures that produce the blades we discuss here.

Extremely well put Norman, and I would like to clarify that my own comments in no way were directed at you or your observations in particular, but that the overall context of the input on this item had taken a most negative demeanor. While I do not favor direct criticism of dealers or sellers openly on these pages, you indeed have a wonderfully diplomatic approach which is much appreciated and admirable, and think you well expressed your concerns. My intent was to return the focus to observing the character and its possible regional and historical details.
I apologize for any misunderstanding due to my comments, you write great stuff Norman!!!

All the best,
Jim

An excellent entry!!! I had forgotten about this wonderful book by Mr. Ondaatje, and it is truly a remarkable adventure he undertook in studying Richard Burton's time in India. Here is another perfect example of the importance of references and resources which tend to the events and cultures of specific regions in better understanding the weapons we collect and study.

The heading pesh kabz and choora in Sind is interesting and well placed as these were of course present in these areas, and of course it goes to the diffusion of these arms into and often throughout the Indian subcontinent.
The references to the Talpur's were rulers in Sindh in the 18th century who had not only come from Iranian descent, but the craftsmen there were often Persian as well who were influenced by Ottoman, Chinese and Indian styles as well as Persian.

The book by Ondaatje is fascinating and the reference to Talpurs sent me looking for an article (still not located) , "The Swords of the Shazadas and Talpurs", Peter Hayes, Connoisseur, Nov. 1971, Vol.178, #717. p.177-

I would here note that the term 'pesh kabz' is sometimes a conundrum in exactly when it should be applied and to which of the grouping of knives known in these areas. The pesh kabz (Persian= fore front) is typically a dagger with recurved blade with T spine, however there are examples with straight blade narrowing dramatically to point very much resembling the 'Khyber knife'. It seems as daggers these may often be termed 'choora' as the smaller 'knife or dagger' form of the Khyber, but the term choora itself seems to be a general term for knife in either Urdu or Punjabi, perhaps boith. With the unclear nature of the choora term, it seems in some references even the Khyber itself has been termed choora.

The Afghan dagger 'karud' is often much like a pesh kabz but much heavier and often shaped like a Khyber but the grip is much bolder.

It seems further that the recurved blade in the pesh kabz has become represented throughout India in the 'chilanum' with somewhat anthromorphic hilt as well as the khanjharli with a mushroom shaped pommel as well as the khanjhar with parrothead type hilt.

The karud and Khyber knife seem primarily Afghan, along with the smaller straight blade pesh kabz often termed 'choora'. While Afghan weapons do reflect a degree of Persian influence in thier often less well executed openwork in decoration, it certainly does not seem to me to the extent of Uzbek or Sindhi weapons. Again, in Afghanistan the craftsmanship is often situated in remote tribal regions and reflecting nominally the influences of interloping arms. The craftsmanship in Sind seems more inclined to direct Persian influences in court oriented craftsmen, and the case in Bukhara as well.

Walrus Ivory as Grip Material
 

Someone could write a book or at least a monograph on the subject of how walrus ivory was:

1)First identified as an article of interest,

2) How it became a desirable commodity in Central Asia and Persia/India,

3 Who who the groups and ethnicities were who formed the trading network for it.

That would be a way to frame a narrative and organize a journey that would encompass cultures, histories, and artistic centers--and a discussion of various types of weapons and other utensils for which walrus ivory was used as decoration.

Elephant ivory was an ancient and valuable material, already familiar to artists and connoisseurs. Walrus ivory must have had special appeal as something new and exotic. Would be interesting to know if special properties were ascribed to it, as it reached these Turkic, Persian, Afghan and Indian/Sikh/Moghul areas.

From the Far North to Central Asia and into North India - what a journey. What was the human and cultural chain of contact?

And it would be interesting to figure out how early it first appeared at various courts in Central Asia and Persia/India as an artistic medium.

There might have been one emporium that could have played a part: Nizhni-Novgorod, site of a very important trading fair into the 19th Century.

Marquis Alphonse de Custine travelled to the fair at Nijni (his spelling) in 1839. He noted that precious stones were traded there, along with furs of every description, iron goods, tea, kashmir wool and that each commodity area was the size of a city.

Long before, Custine informs us, the fair had taken place on the property of a boyar, Makarieff, and was later transferred to the nearby town of Nizjni

http://books.google.com/books?id=ksg...-1&output=html

Russians, Persians, Kalmucks, Tibetans, Kirghiz, Chinese, all and more came to trade and exchange goods.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ksg...ed=0CBoQ6AEwAg

Am wondering if it was through the medium of the Nijni emporium that this novel and expensive material from the far North (walrus ivory) could have made its way to the courts of the Emirs--and onto the two pesh kabz daggers Mr Ondaatje was so fortunate to find, to love and bring home after his visit to Sindh.

To verify this, we would have to find primary source documents placing Russians in Nijni or the earlier Makrieff fair at the node of the walrus ivory trade route.

Custine while at Niznithat the Russians got much of their wealth producing iron, from mines in the Urals, staffed by convicted prisoners. He describes the iron goods section as being the size of a town.

Final note: Can any iron ore be used to create fine wootz? Or is only ore from certain sources the correct material for true wootz?

Iron production in the Urals began to pick up during the reign of Peter the Great (1680s to 1722) who needed all the Russian made cannon he could get in his war against Charles II of Sweden.

So Russia became a very important source of iron starting in the early to
mid 18 th century.

Would be interesting to do a trace and see any of this Russian produced iron have made its way to smiths who knew how to create wootz steel.

Probably for this one needs metallurgy experts who are friends and have the right lab equipment including a spectrometer.

Trading the metallurgical signatures of various blades would be a great parallel to the work being done on the human genome and how our ancestors have travelled the world.

Actually the topic of walrus ivory at least as pertains to Indian arms was dealt with in a chapter by Dr. G.N.Pant in his "Indian Arms and Armour" (1979).

Returning to the regional history of Central Asian areas including Afghanistan which gives outstanding overview of the geopolitical turmoil and tribal interaction is "The Great Game" by Peter Hopkirk, I do not recall date of publication.

Most of these topics mentioned have been discussed at length on these pages over the past fifteen years, and the search feature will reveal the discourse and findings often reached. There are a good number of members here who are most impressively versed in the metallurgy of these weapons (I am not one unfortunately :)) . We have always tried to include sources and cites in discussions and as a result the search on certain topics will often show the amazing bibliography of references used through these.

Most of the movement of these valuable commodities and materials are of course important in the study of trade routes and cultural interaction throughout history. The study of these venues is also an excellent source for understanding the diffusion of many weapon forms as well as thier development and history, one of the very important aspects of our studies here.

John

As far as the Iron ore is concerned only certain areas had clean ore. Most ore had too much sulfur and other contaminants to used to make wootz. I believe that is why wootz fell out of favor it became harder to find clean ore plus it was very labor intensive to forge. Pattern welded blades were a bit less time consuming to make and were probably equal in lateral stress strength as the older wootz sword blades.

Hi Jim,
No problems, I only wish the net and a resource like the one we are fortunate enough to have here had been available when I first became interested in 'our hobby', it would have saved a lot of gnashing of teeth and wasting of hard earned funds. I'm glad to see that the debate has raised further questions and as always I'm following the discussion with much interest. Safe travels.
Kind Regards,
Norman.

Exactly! Back in my early days B.C. (=before computers) I can recall waiting weeks, often months for replies to pertinant queries in research, and if one did not have the necessary reference books or access to well informed contacts nearby, you were on your own buying items. Dealers were most creative in thier 'tales' and most convincing.
I can recall even getting responses to letters over a year later, in at least several instances years later!
These forums and cyberworld are magnificent, and this all seems like some sort of space odyssey to me :)

All the best,
JIm

It's an old trade, medieval or older. I don't know any modern papers/books, but the topic has been covered:

Arabic and Chinese Trade in Walrus and Narwhal Ivory
Berthold Laufer and Paul Pelliot
T'oung Pao , Second Series, Vol. 14, No. 3 (1913), pp. 315-370
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4526349

Supplementary Notes on Walrus and Narwhal Ivory
Berthold Laufer
T'oung Pao , Second Series, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Jul., 1916), pp. 348-389
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4526501

... and perhaps there is something in Laufer's book, Ivory in China (freely available at http://archive.org/details/ivoryinchina21lauf ).

Thank you for the references
 

And yes, the internet, well used, is a marvel.

Thank you again..

Walrus ivory was collected in Greenland etc. & traded by the Vikings to the main european trading centres at least.

There are so many references to this, Ill leave any one interested to find them.

As an unsupported supposition its known that the Vikings traveled & traded to the Middle east, North Africa & deep into Russia at the very least, so its possible there standard trade item of walrus tusks could have also spread into those parts.

spiral