Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
Indeed the phenomenon of military style hilts was an apparent popular convention of the period post Gandamak Treaty (1879) .As the British occupied Afghan regions nominally, and tribesmen of various Khyber region tribes with para military levees attached to the army often favored their own blades, these hybrid 'saylaawa' (=Khyber knife) were often seen.
Many of these hilted with the European style hits had the Mazar i Sharif stamp on the blade, presumably from hilting in these shops near the Kaar Khaana e Jangalak (Machin Khana) in Kabul.
The European military style hilt seems to have been known in degree in Afghan regions as Daoud Shah is seen wearing a sword with similar hilt design at the signing of the Treaty of Gandamak, May, 1879.
There were suggestions that this design was a pattern of 1889 regulation hilt, but as far as I have known that has never been substantiated.
These military style swords with this distinct hilt form seem to have produced in Kabul from 1893-1903 (I have one dated 1896) but it has not been clear which units used them.
|
The Kabul workshop was established sometime post 1881, with the most advanced European machinery arriving from 1887 onwards, so any Khyber with an arsenal stamp was produced when the British had long left Afghan soil.
I think I saw a while back here someone assume the rather unique blades of the Afghan military short swords were made in solingen for some reason but by 1893 the factory had state of the art European equipment, and had the potential to make blades up to a high standard. Afghanistan by this point was totally self sufficient in the making of edged weapons- however by the 1920s the factory fell into disrepair and knowledge regressed- swords from that point on have noticeably rougher etching on the blade, and much simpler fullers