Origins of the term 'pulwar' or Afghan tulwar.

Andy Stevens · 14th August 2010, 01:47 PM

Hello folks, once again the old grey matter has been spured into action! This morning whilst in deep and meaningful conversation

with an Afghan friend,Farid, we touched on the subject of historic Afghan weaponry. Now, my chum was a former fighter in with the northern alliance, is a keen student of his national heritage and in the past has been a real help re Afghan weapons, but today, not even the grim results of a naff vending machine could stir his wisdom regarding the sword we all seem to know as the pulwa/pulouar. I tried every conceivable method of pronouncing the word yet got no joy. My question then is this; is pulwar an Anglo collectors term or a less common Afghan name? My friend- who speaks Farsi/Pashtun and Urdu- recognised the sword from a rough drawing I made but as a Tulwar, he has a good knowledge of Chooras, the bigger khyber knife, tabar, lohar etc, yet knew not the elegant down drooping quillons of the Pulwar. He did tell some very interesting family stories relating to the use of edged weapons, especially the use of jezail muskets in the early years of the war against the soviets and the somewhat grizzly ways in which kalishnikovs were first precured by his elders!
Thanks in advance Andy

14th August 2010, 01:47 PM	#1
Andy Stevens Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: London Posts: 155	Origins of the term 'pulwar' or Afghan tulwar. Hello folks, once again the old grey matter has been spured into action! This morning whilst in deep and meaningful conversation with an Afghan friend,Farid, we touched on the subject of historic Afghan weaponry. Now, my chum was a former fighter in with the northern alliance, is a keen student of his national heritage and in the past has been a real help re Afghan weapons, but today, not even the grim results of a naff vending machine could stir his wisdom regarding the sword we all seem to know as the pulwa/pulouar. I tried every conceivable method of pronouncing the word yet got no joy. My question then is this; is pulwar an Anglo collectors term or a less common Afghan name? My friend- who speaks Farsi/Pashtun and Urdu- recognised the sword from a rough drawing I made but as a Tulwar, he has a good knowledge of Chooras, the bigger khyber knife, tabar, lohar etc, yet knew not the elegant down drooping quillons of the Pulwar. He did tell some very interesting family stories relating to the use of edged weapons, especially the use of jezail muskets in the early years of the war against the soviets and the somewhat grizzly ways in which kalishnikovs were first precured by his elders! Thanks in advance Andy