New Book: "Edged Weapons of Afghanistan"
 

In current discussions on Khyber knives and Afghan shashkas, it seemed timely to present some words on this wonderful new book, authored by our own Dmitry Miloserdov , "Edged Weapons of Afghanistan: 19th-early 20th c." (2019).
This book, while in Russian text, is breathtakingly illustrated with amazing examples of pertinent weaponry, as well as many other great accompanying illustrations. While I do not speak or read Russian, there are concise captions to describe the images, and honestly, I am so captivated by the photos of these examples it does not seem to matter.

The author has carefully researched this material for a good number of years, and what parts of the text I have been able to read through translation are outstanding. There is little reference in the west on the subject of Afghan weaponry, typically simply brief and cursory notes in various well known books on broader studies of other regions. Therefore there is considerable debate and contention among students of ethnographic arms.

The author does not just accept nor repeat the often commonly held notions or views on the arms of Afghanistan or its neighboring countries and regions, but presents his own versions in a thoughtful and well supported manner.
That is what makes this book provocative, fascinating and exciting. It describes and as required, challenges what we have often come to accept in the little material long standing in reference to these arms.

In my personal opinion, this is a long overdue reference on a area of arms which has seldom received exclusive attention, with beautifully photographed weapons that are a complete joy to see. These rare weapons are compelling and to have them just to admire, is amazing, even in the pages of such a book.

I very much recommend this book !!! :)

Hi Jim,
Do you have any info as to where this book is available......price etc?
Stu

Yes, we eagerly await . . .

I cant post details or links here as it is not permitted on these pages I don't think, but contact Mahratt via PM and he can get you these details.
I just wanted to get the review here as I think this is a great book!!!

Wow!
Thank you for posting this!
A book on Afghan weapons was so much needed. I have the feeling that very soon will become a reference. 👍

Jim,
You never cease to surprise me: you can read Russian?

Hi Jim,
You could place the details on the Swap Forum I think without breaking the rules.
Stu

Dear Jim.
Thank you for the good words about my book. I am very pleased that you praised her so highly. I have no doubt that my book will cause a lot of controversy and discussion. And I even know in advance who will be especially hot to discuss :) :) :)

The book is written in Russian, but as Jim said, to all illustrations there are duplicate signatures in English. In addition, especially for those who are interested in my book, I have prepared its English translation and send it in Word format by e-mail to those who purchase my book. Of course, this translation is not perfect, but nevertheless it allows not only to look at excellent illustrations in my book, but also to understand my thoughts that I wanted to tell.

By the way, not only Jim already has my book, but also several other forum participants. I hope that they also write their opinion about the book.

And a little abstract of my book:

The book contains the previously unexplored data of cold weapons that were used in Afghanistan in 19th-20th centuries. First of all the author describes the military-political history of Afghanistan and development of the armed forces.
The main samples of cold arms that existed on the territory of Afghanistan in the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries and used by the people of Afghanistan during the bloody conflicts for nearly two hundred years are considered in detail and consistently. The author researches ethnic military weapons as well as weapons of the regular army of Afghanistan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The basis of the study are more than a thousand item of weapons from collections of museums and private collections. The main difficulty was that there are not collections exactly of Afghanistan weapons. There are only separate subjects which are often described wrongly. Besides this Afghanistan is a country that was not visited by specialized ethnographic expeditions until the end of the 19th century. There were no weapons collected specially. Afghanistan weapons appeared in Europe only as trophies of wars. In the 20th century there were no attention paid to the weapons of this region. As a result, so far there have been no articles and books devoted to the traditional weapons of Afghanistan.

Traditional weapons and weapons made in Afghanistan for the regular army are the main subject of the study, that is why European cold weapons and its numerous modifications that came across in the region are left out of the monograph. The book contains more than 550 pages and richly illustrated with lithographs, miniatures and photos of people in Afghanistan with weapons, as well as a lot of items of weapons published for the first time.

All types of weapons presented in the descriptions after the chapters of the monograph, by origin, can be divided into three groups. The first group of samples comes from Afghanistan and was exported from the country in the period from 1840 to 2015. The second group of samples is presented as the existence of similar material monuments and is confirmed by illustrative sources depicting the inhabitants of this country. The third group consists of items whose origin is not related to Afghanistan, but their almost complete counterparts from this region are known.

Well, Well, Well
I will buy this book right now!
Russian is not a problem, do you look at the texts when you read a Playboy magazine? :)
I'm just sad that my sword is not in it...
:)
Kubur

Dear Kubur, and all other forum participants. I am currently working on two new books. If someone is interested in having items from his collection published in my book, I will be very happy. I am interested in items from Afghanistan and Central Asia (Bukhara, Khiva)
This book of mine contains items from the collections of several forum participants. For example, a wonderful shashka and a Khyber knife from the Gavin collection.

And I repeat again. For those who buy my book, I will send an e-mail translation of the book into English.

But, of course, can just watch the illustrations. Because the illustrations in the book are of exceptionally good quality :)

LOL! Kubur, you really are a rascal! Perfect analogy with the Playboy magazine note :) and the weapons in this book as photographed are true CENTERFOLDS!

Dima, very gracious of you to offer translated pages to buyers, as although we can passionately admire these 'centerfolds', there are many details which bring questions and further explanation.

I have many books in my 'bookmobile library' which are not in English, and I wish I had such translations with them!
Ariel, thank you for the kind compliment.....but my 'achievement' in reading this text was entirely through the courtesy of Dima's translated words, as he has offered here to purchasing members.

Guys, thank you so much for so many orders for my book. I didn't even expect so many people to come. I will write for everyone. I'm going to Arkhangelsk to give a course of lectures in the North of Russia tomorrow. I will come back on September 30 and will be able to start sending the book to everyone. Once again thank you all for your interest in my book. By the way, I already thanked Gavin for the provided photos, but I forgot to thank Tatiana. Tatiana, thank you again for the photos!

The book is excellent!Congratulations to the author!I received it about 5 months ago.Extremely rich in historical facts and wonderful descriptions.

Thank you very much for your opinion! Very nice to hear your words!

New Book: "Edged Weapons of Afghanistan"
 

I had the honor of being one of the first to study this book. I was thrilled about this great work, what really convinced me . It was not old wisdom that was warmed up but the author reworked everything and researched it carefully. He convincingly describes his own ideas and insights about Afghanistan, its history and weapons. In addition, the photos and sketches are of exceptional quality. It was high time for this publication. An enrichment for every collector and expert. Thank you Mahratt (Dmitry Miloserdov )
Kurt

Dear Kurt, thank you very much! I appreciate your opinion very much!

I just bought the book.
It's like the Mormon bible or the new plus the old testament.
Huge and beautifull, one of the best book that i bought.
Without shame i can say that i collect most of the books on oriental arms and it was a good catch.
Now Rick, Stu and I will dream that the author write the same for firearms in Afghanistan...
Gongratsss!!!!!!!!!!!!

KUBUR

Thank you!

Kubur, on September 30, I will come home from my business trip and send you a translation of my book into English.

An excellent addition to our detective arsenal Jim !! Thank You. Having a translation is also a huge bonus!!

Ibrahim al Balooshi

Guys
To everyone who ordered my book I will start sending parcels in early October :)

I've been absent for quite some time but none the less, I have been in contact with many during my time.
Dmitry is one such individual with whom I am in contact with, thanks to the modern applications found in FaceBook.

I have purchased this book for a number of reasons, one, being my love for Central Asian arms, two, I was lucky enough to be asked to provide some subject matter from my collections, three, Dmitry has become a good friend, and four, in support of a writer who has taken the time to fuel our collecting interests with another important reference benchmark and a little discussed region of the world.

Over the years I've found critics on every subject, many knowledgeable, but none have taken the time to do what Dmitry has done with this book.
I take my hat of to Dmitry for producing such a large and comprehensive book on the subject of Afghan arms.

In short, the content is comprehensive, the images, (as I have noted with dozens of Russian titles) are outstanding, very clear and detailed.

I am grateful for being able to digest the content in the translated English docs provided with the book and I am sure many would benefit from, if the stars are aligned, an English version of the book.

I look forward to seeing what the future holds.

Gavin

Dear Gavin, thank you for your words and for the items that you provided for my book.

Guys, from tomorrow I'll start sending books to those I promised. The books are heavy, so I will send one book a day :)

Another title for my (already lengthy) must-buy list!

No problems. Please write me your mailing address.

Got my copy and...

... WOW! 🤩🤩🤩

This is truly a Bible of Afghan weapons!
A must have for every collector!

Excellent work Mahratt!

Marius, thank you very much for the good words about my book.

Fully agreed. Vast pile of information and very well illustrated.

Dear Robert (Bob A), I'm glad you finally got my book :)

Indeed, so am I.

It is a wonderful book, beautifully illustrated, with an astounding array of weaponry, and a treasure trove of early photos and line drawings from the publications of the time. I'm very pleased to see these early illustrations, which place the weapons in their context.

On the basis of the illustrations alone, this book is an important document of the period. Assembled from many sources unavailable to most, I'm unaware of any other book that has such broad compilation of visual information.

I believe this book is destined to be an important, definitive source for otherwise unobtainable information - an instant classic. I'm very grateful for the efforts of the author in so successfully undertaking what must have been a monumental task.

Robert, thank you very much for your words. I hope that the text of the book will not disappoint you either.

I recently received a copy of this book and the translated text from the author. In brief, I find it excellent and recommend to all interested in Afghan and Indo-Persian arms in general.. The chapters on regulation Afghan army weapons, shashkas, and dating Afghan weapons are particularly interesting. They contained information I had not yet come across.

There are many photographs and illustrations, almost all with great clarity and detail.

My one minor suggestion for improvement would be to provide some more data for the examples pictured: mass and distal taper would be interesting and help understand the geometry of the blades.

Thank you very much for your review of my book.

I have been meaning to say for some time that I find this book to be a valuable reference. My review has been delayed to some degree by the fact that the book does contain a lot of information and when cross referenced with the source material is a bit of an undertaking to fully appreciate. I find this to be a positive factor in a book such as this one. I have enjoyed the book's arguments using linguistics to pinpoint origin of blade type and the logic behind the scarcity of brass as a tool to help establish age. Whether further scholarship validate and reinforce his ideas only time will tell, but I personally appreciate Dmitry's efforts researching this underappreciated subject and hope he continues his studies. I look forward to your next writings.

As ihutch1 said above, I would love more information about the examples shown.

Sincerely,
IP

Thank you very much for your opinion. It's very nice to hear it.
If I manage to publish an English version of my book, I will be sure to include the weight of most of the items (since most of the items published in the book are from my collection and that of my friends). I will also mention the cross section of the blades.