Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Would This Indian Sword Classify as a Sousson Patah???

ariel · 2nd April 2016, 11:33 AM

I think the last blade is a local imitation of Ottoman Yataghan. Clumsy, but even with yataghan- inspired plates at the ricasso.

Indians had forward-curving blades galore from times immemorial, especially down South, an area untouched by the Macedonian Greeks. Also, conflating Greek Kopis and Egyptian Khopesh is a stretch: blade configurations were distinctly dissimilar. Kopis was yataghan-like with the edge on the concave side, while Khopesh was a "sickle sword" with sharpened convex side.

Kopis might have mutated into Iberian Falcata, but Khopesh was endemic to Egypt and had nothing to do with any other pattern, except for the Assyrian Sappara. But these two fought each other like crazy, so sharing weapon patterns is not a surprise.
In this vein, I find especially amusing the descriptions of Laz Bichaq , a short-lived 19 century device of Pontic Greeks and Muslim Georgians, as a direct descendant of Egyptian Khopesh. We are talking 3-4 thousand years gap with no similar configuration of blade anywhere else! :-)

2nd April 2016, 11:33 AM	#14
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	I think the last blade is a local imitation of Ottoman Yataghan. Clumsy, but even with yataghan- inspired plates at the ricasso. Indians had forward-curving blades galore from times immemorial, especially down South, an area untouched by the Macedonian Greeks. Also, conflating Greek Kopis and Egyptian Khopesh is a stretch: blade configurations were distinctly dissimilar. Kopis was yataghan-like with the edge on the concave side, while Khopesh was a "sickle sword" with sharpened convex side. Kopis might have mutated into Iberian Falcata, but Khopesh was endemic to Egypt and had nothing to do with any other pattern, except for the Assyrian Sappara. But these two fought each other like crazy, so sharing weapon patterns is not a surprise. In this vein, I find especially amusing the descriptions of Laz Bichaq , a short-lived 19 century device of Pontic Greeks and Muslim Georgians, as a direct descendant of Egyptian Khopesh. We are talking 3-4 thousand years gap with no similar configuration of blade anywhere else! :-)