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Originally Posted by David
That is part of the problem. As i mentioned before, the earliest Moro kris that i have ever seen tend to date to the 18th century. It might be possible that these have been misdated and are closer to 17th century, but earlier than that is doubtful. The one that Spunjer shows here is most probably late 19th century. If anyone can show me a Moro kris from the 14th century i would sure like to see it. 
There are many threads on this forum that show these so-called "archaic" kris and we have had quite a bit of discussion on them. There are also many Moro kris threads that deal with blades that have inscriptions, okir and/or magickal symbols on them. As Spunjer has pointed out, these inscriptions are sometimes written in Jawi. I would suggest that you try the search function and check some of these threads out. They will definitely help you with your research.
BTW, can you actually pinpoint when the word "turko" came into the language? |
I think the krises collected or photographed by the smithsonian institution in 1900's were actually older. Moros then and muslims now have a tradition of treating weapons as heirlooms.
Spunjer's kris is a suspect because of the ivory head of the handle-- that is if it's really an ivory. Philippines has no source of Ivory. There are lumads who still wear ivory bracelets but they don't know the source. Upon inspections, I believe it could be traced back to India. It could not be borneo because ivory bracelets are only common among the lumads in caraga and davao region. I haven't seen Muslim women in muslim mindanao wear old ivory bracelets.
It is hard to date folklore. As far as I know, my grandparents had been using the words turko, bombay, and negro even without meeting a turk, an indian, and an african. They are just part of our lexicon and consciousness. bombay has a proven history in the Philippines, so is the negro (slaves) during the spanish galleon trade, but the story about the turko is still not clear.
I have been researching about the origin of sulu, its meaning, and what language it came from. I could not find it in early Malay words, in Spanish, but i have found it in turkish language and it means "water." It perfectly suits to the geography of sulu, the philippine province.
Sanskrit also has sulu. it means "one who cuts well" and it is a term use in Indian classical dance, but Mandakranta Bose wrote in her book, Movement and Mimesis: The Idea of Dance in the Sanskritic, that the use of sulu only began in 16th century.
I believe Indian's sulu is an influence of the muslim's temple dance pangalay in sulu, the Philippine province, where krises are sometimes used-- hence, the meaning, "one who cuts well."
I still believe that sulu became a name of the place when the arab missionaries reached the island bringing Islam and the Ottomans were with them. The spread of Islam that time was synonymous to the expansion of the ottoman empire.