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Originally Posted by estcrh
Here are some similar examples, is there any argument about these examples being authentic?
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Salaams estcrh, These are excellent photographs and the descriptions blanket cover what has been part of the mystery surrounding these forms. It is well known that the Clauberg blades appear on many of these hilts..but as you see these are vastly different hilts; some roughly formed and others that are uniformally precise...in Rosewood and Horn or roughcast wood... The same with the ironwork...roughly hammered or precisely made with precast iron to the hilts... I think they form the origin of species of the later copies done in backyard workshops in and around Sanaa. There is no argument here...
These are in my view...some of the Zanzibar forms later copied in Sanaa. The Sanaa copies used Ethiopian blades having removed the Rhino hilt Gurade hilts and replaced (though not always) with poor quality iron. It still goes on today. Sanaa provides such stock to Muttrah, Salalah and no doubt Cairo, Istanbul and Sharjah souks. Regional variation in hilts is interesting with silver covering hilts in Saudia style sometimes in the Karabela form and other hilts decorated in pot metal...The chart by Butin shows many of the variations..but does not include Muttrah recent (since 1970)_ rehilts. In fact does not the chart by Butin below suggest a much more organised ..even industrial approach to mass turnout of the precise hilt form for which no one has put the finger upon ...Could it be Afghan production/ Indian contract?
Where I think the real intrigue exists is in discovering where the Moroccan and Zanzibar sword form sprouted out of... How did Spanish/Moroccan sword form get to the Indian Ocean and was it direct or indirect from Europe or the Philippines...or both. Was it by sea...or land? Or both!! What is the connection with Afghanistan and was there any collusion in these from Hadramaut or Hyderabad..and did the Yemeni influence in Hyderabad or India have any bearing on this trade?... How did Oman influence this weapons development and when did the Ivory gold inlaid weapons appear and was it at the time or before Said the Great took over Zanzibar as the capital of Oman in the late 1830s...? Where did the uniform hilt originate since it looks like a workshop or factory precise item rather than hand made ?... Could it have been Navy?...or military in its style?
For more blades at Muttrah see
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ght=omani+souk
For a good example of the Ethiopian Gurade see
http://stsathyre.tumblr.com/post/364...ord-dated-19th
As a general querry there seems to be a bell ringing on sword number 1009 on the Butin Chart ...does this hilt pommel remind us of an African shape but turned ?? That of the Billao of Somalia. Ilustrated below.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.