The “ regulation Khyber Knife” in the Afghani Army at end of the 19th – beginning of

[mahratt]

Dear forum members, be thought to your attention a short article.
I express my deep gratitude to Jim McDougall, for the data on Mashin Khan. And thank Ariel for the translation of my article from Russian to English.
I value your opinion and criticism. Maybe someone will add their knowledge my little study.

[CENTER]The “ regulation Khyber Knife” in the Afghani Army at end of the 19th – beginning of the 20-th centuries.[/CENTER]

At the end of the 19th century virtually all Oriental militaries were furnished with the regulation patterns of their sidearms, as a rule adopting European examples. This was also true about Afghanistan, where regulation sidearms, - or patterns resembling them, - appeared not earlier than 1870-s (we are not discussing examples of genuinely European weapons used by the individual Afghans).
After the 2nd Anglo-Afghan War ( 1878-1880) Afghanistan began to develop industrial weapon production on a small scale. The war ended in 1880 with the defeat of the so-called “Afghan rebels” by the British army. However, the British were unable to control the entire territory, so instead they put on the throne an Emir of their choice. British Empire assumed relative control of the country, and in exchange they paid a subsidy to the local government and provided it with weapons. Adur Rahman was a good choice for the British. Having decided to modernize the society, he became a virtual creator of the country that we know now as modern Afghanistan. One of his new creations was the establishment of a State Arsenal in Kabul in 1887 that was called Mashin Khana (Machine House). It was built with the assistance of the British engineers and metallurgists. As expected, the main thrust of the Arsenal was aimed at mass production of firearms. Nevertheless, a small quantity of the regulation side arms was also manufactured in the Mashin Khana

The appearance of the regulation sidearms at the very end of the 19th century is confirmed by known iconographic sources. There was not a single example of regulation Afghani sidearms among multiple images photographed by John Burke and published in the album of Omar Khan “From Kashmir to Kabul” (2). Nevertheless, even after that time the regulation sidearms were in use side by side with the traditional ethnic examples of bladed weapons.

The so-called Khyber Knife (presumably called Salawar Yataghan locally) is an example of a typical Afghani bladed weapon, a mix between the short, - and the long-bladed configuration (Fig.1). It was called “sword” by Stone (4), but it may also be named dussack, or short sword, as defined by the modern terminology.
First, the name. Both terms, - Khyber Knife and Salawar Yataghan, - are unsatisfactory. The latter one was first mentioned by Egerton (5) and repeated by Stone (6). That was how it entered the contemporary usage. Nevertheless, native Afghans themselves cannot explain the connection of this term with any of the 3 main languages: Pushtu, Dari or Farsi. Moreover, we are hesitant to use the adopted word “yataghan” for a traditional Afghani weapon. The name “Khyber” is also unsatisfactory. It derives from the locality where this weapon was regularly observed. There is a stable tradition of transcription of the term “Khyber Pass”, that is derived from Pushtu: د خیبر درہ. Why then do we call the weapon Khyber Knife, if Khyber Sword would be a more precise term due to its respectable size? The only explanation for this term is its simplicity: short and convenient, and most importantly, - traditional. While we fully understand the imperfection of the established terminology, we shall henceforth employ the established term Khyber.
In its classical variant, the Khyber has massive, straight, T-reinforced blade of substantial length, widened at the basis (root), so that the latter actually plays the role of a guard. The back of the blade is as a rule straight and undecorated. The handle consists of 2 horn or bone slabs (the bone ones are often assembled of separate pieces). The scabbard is conical, made of wood and covered with leather or fabric. Frequently there is a long metal chape that is often decorated with chasing technique. The handle enters the scabbard by ~2/3 of its length, and the beak-like pommel is the only part visible, making the sword very convenient for rapid withdrawal. Egerton mentions that Gilzais, Khyberies and members of other tribes carry on their hips swords in massive scabbards that are about 3 feet long and refers to the illustration showing a typical Khyber (7). The length of a typical example is between 45-100 cm.

[mahratt]

To the best of our knowledge the Khybers were worn tucked under the belt, and this is confirmed by multiple photographs and paintings

http://foto.infan.ru/img/600-0/f/52/..._na_namaze.jpg

[mahratt]

This heavy-bladed short sword was a traditional weapon of the Afghani Pushtun tribes.
This is how Kipling describes it: "If you want to know what they fight with, reach under my seat an' pull out the long knife that's there." They dragged out and beheld for the first time the grim, bone- handled, triangular Afghan knife. It was almost as long as Lew. "That's the thing to jint ye," said the trooper feebly. "It can take off a man's arm at the shoulder as easy as slicing butter. I halved the beggar that used that un, but there's more of his likes up above. They don't understand thrustin', but they're devils to slice."
And the battle itself: "Then they felt body to body the amazing physical strength of their foes; a shriek of pain ended the rush, and the knives fell amid scenes not to be told”.

It is important to remember that, while preserving their traditional form, there is a wide variety in the level and the extent of decorations. The simple ones, as described above, are the most frequent. However, there are multiple examples of richly-decorated ones, with steel or copper handles, gold or silver koftgari, the metal parts of the handle made of wootz and with deep or superficial incised decorations.
In this paper we will not go into detailed analysis of different examples of a traditional Khyber, but rather follow the evolution of this weapon that eventually led to the emergence of its regulation pattern resembling the European short sword (Fig.3). Its blade is wide, slightly curved and has one-and-a- half edge form and a well-developed ricasso. Almost all examples carry a stamp of the so-called Mazar-i-Sharif arsenal and are dated between 1893 to 1903.

[mahratt]

The back of the blade is massive and T-formed, and the last third of the blade carries a small yelman with a false edge. The edge merges smoothly with the yelman forming a sword--like tip. There are 2 wide fullers stretching from the ricasso almost to the tip. The handle is as a rule made of steel with wooden slabs located in the middle of the grip, between steel parts. The front D-guard is pierced creating an impression of a 3- bar design. The pommel is elegantly curved resembling a bird’s head. The end of quillon is turned toward the back of the blade, similar to the European custom. Ricasso is partially covered from both sides by semicircular guard extensions that resemble cupolas of the mosque. The scabbard is wooden, covered with black or brown leather. The (most often steel) throat is integral with the middle band carrying on its inner side the hanging ring. Thе chape has a well-formed drag.
This weapon is traditionally called Afghan Military Saber or Afghan Military Sword. More correctly, it should be called Afghan Military Khyber or Regulation Khyber. Some may question the reason for introduction of a new term for a weapon only loosely resembling the real ethnic Khyber Knife.
From the start, it is imperative to distinguish the object under discussion from other similar ones that should correctly be called “short sabers”. We can see the latter one in a John Burke’s photograph “ Mohammed Yakub Khan with British Officers in May 1879”, - as carried by the second from the left Afghani named Daoud Shah (9)

[mahratt]

As distinct from the “regulation khyber”, short sabers are extremely rare and vary enormously, whereas the “regulation khybers” are plentiful and virtually identical ( with the exception of the award ones with damascus blades and/or ivory handles). The blades of short sabers are more curved, less wide, often without false edge or the stamp of Mazar-i-Sharif on the ricasso. In addition, every blade is different and some are even made of wootz. The handles are very similar, but the details and the materials of the short sabers’ handles are individual. The seeming similarity between the scabbards is limited to the manner of sword carriage (saber-type one in short sabers) although there are exceptions. (Fig.5). Thus, the apparent similarity between the Afghan Short Saber and Afghan Regulation Khyber is only superficial. Moreover, as opposed to the Regulation Khybers, the Short Sabers first appeared at the end of the 1870s but never became popular.

[mahratt]

Having defined the differences between the “Regulation Khyber” and the “Short Saber”, we are approaching the point of explanation why do we consider using the novel term. To clinch the point, we wish to discuss 2 other regulation examples.
Extremely rare is a pattern integrating features of both “ethnic” and “regulation” Khybers. It might have been an experimental model or a transitory step of evolution. From the ethnic Khyber it inherited the form of the T-blade, but acquired the handle with the guard from the “regulation” one. The dimensions of both are virtually identical