Bedouin Sword for Discussion

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

What??? You obviously need to carefully re read what I said. No mention was made of Oman or Omani artifacts, but the comments were related to your assumption that most blades which are not mounted to the custom of a particular country, are no more than traps for the tourist.. My point is that until very recent times (your statement of 1970 is about right) tourism as we now know it did not exist in Arabia, so why would swords be "manufactured" to fool non existant tourists?

Salaams ~ As far as the date specifics are concerned the Mutrah workshops recall sometime in the late 70s / early 80s as the timeframe for the appearance of the knocked up hilts which they describe as Saudia or Yemeni. My guess that they were done as a result of the exodus of expert Jewish craftsmen is withdrawn (it seemed to fit) but there was a gap of about 20 years since Mutrah didn't free up for tourism until after 1970. The attribution that they were swords initially stripped of rhino hilts then put on the general souk trade routes makes a lot of sense. Either way you have one of them.

You have a tourist sword with what appears to be a Sanaa or Saudia makeshift hilt. The blade isn't at all bad... they pour out of Yemen these days and the best estimate yet is that they were rehilted to take advantage of their original rhino hilts then the blades were tipped onto the souk market for Quwait, Riyad, Muscat and Sharjah etc for tourists. Once the Sanaa merchants realised that here was a perfectly easy way to make a few bucks I think they then went into overdrive and thus a secondary industry has unfolded, consequently, new blades are being presented with such hilts retaining the old ploy that these are "genuine bedouine" ~ its what the tourists want to hear...

My knowledge of this style comes from having seen hundreds in Mutrah, Sharjah and other Souks where you are literally tripping over the things and although the odd one has an interesting blade and stamp and they are also shoved onto Omani longhilts in Muscat the aim is to push these in front of visitors as tourist swords. That's what you have ~ A tourist sword.

Be happy with that or put another hilt on it... Rehilting isn't a sin...It has been done for hundreds of years both on and off the battlefield.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.