Fugh, unlike Mr. McDougall I am way too lazy to actually find quotes, but I have on my hard drive translation from atrak of a mamluk manual that insists that holes filled with gold is a mark of supreme Yemeni produced swords (??). Interestingly it is the only manual that was putting quite a big emphesis on these swords rather than hindu swords.
Gold dots actually had a very long history - don't they appear later on Timurid sword as a sign of Amir (3 dots) ? In Timurid was not it suppsed to be a alluasion to Timurid's tamga which in its turn was an old mongolic symbol that supposedly originated from heaven's representation in China ?
Interestingly I have seen gold dots even on XVIIth century iranian swords.
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