Quote:
|
Originally Posted by A.alnakkas
Interesting. I always thought that the badge of office in Oman is the kattara, in Yemen its the jambiya and rarely swords. In KSA and other northern countries like Kuwait and Qatar it was always the badawi style saif. Do you know any specific tribe that uses these crude swords?
|
Salaams A.alnakkas ~ The badge of office in Oman is the Omani Khanjar. Occasionally curved kattara sword are carried by officials and even Royalty either on special occasions or important meetings. When dancing is required at Eid weddings or other meetings lots of people turn up with dancing swords; Omani Straight flexible Sayfs.
Whilst they all have a badge of office connotation the Khanjar (or Khunjar) is more common and even denotes the head of the family. In addition the camel stick is carried and it too has a badge of office traditional indication to it. The gunbelt and Martini Henry rifle may also be included in this array as a respected group of items all worn to reflect the tradition, bearing and badge of office of the wearer... The Khanjar, however, carries the most importance in this regard.
These crude aluminium hilted swords do seem to appear in tribal bedu groups ~ whereas you probably see a lot of these there are perhaps 5 or 10 in Muscat Souk and a couple dotted about the Oman. Buraimi souk has one...and I have another. A friend arrived from Sharjah souk and apparently there are a lot up there... perhaps 10 or twenty and they are very cheap~ quality wise.
Personally I think they have a place in Arabian Sword styles but more on the fringe and as a handy party tool to have in the advent of an important visitor or for dancing.( and as an ethnographic observation) On the other hand it is possible to fight with them, I suppose, but I have them sidelined as accoutrements of tradition only. In addition they reflect the demise of swords in the region which after all has been ebbing since the invention of gunpowder.
The other Arab weapon hardly ever mentioned is "the spear" which has all but vanished for the same reasons.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi