Bedouin Sword for Discussion

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by TVV

Ibrahim,

I am assuming the blade made its way to Yemen because of its former hilt, which was likely rhino and was reused for a jambiya: there have been other examples on the forum of rehilted Ethiopian blades. However, there is one thing that I find somewhat puzzling: the blade was originally straight, and was reforged into a curved one. Logically, it could have been rehilted with its new hilt for the souvenir trade just as it was, so why go through the extra effort of hammering it into a curved one? I can imagine that labor is cheap, but it seems like a totally unnecessary step.

Anyway, for more ethipoian swords rehilted in Yemen, I found this thread. The pictures are now sadly gone, but the hilts were of a different kind, not of the ring hilt variety:
http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001511.html

The thread about the Riyadh bazaars, which I refernced earlier, suggested that the swords in the bazaar were not entirely intended for tourists, but that there was still a local demand for ceremonial and status purposes. While a lot of the production is undoubtedly meant for tourists, we should probably be careful before we quickly dismiss every sword with a modern (1950+) rehilt as a souvenir.

Regards,
Teodor

Salaams TVV, Yes that was interesting and I wonder what the story was on the curved (straight) Ethiopian/ German blade?

As to the question of how many swords there are in Riyad souk destined for tourists and how many for other users; I have no idea but I do know how the split goes in Muscat ... in terms of the imported blades at project #1 and the like~ all go to tourists.... except where a collector may step in and seeing a good blade may correctly rehilt. I can say that none of these out of area blades with crude hilts have been taken by Omani people to be some sort of weapon or as some kind of hoinorific tool or sword of dance...never!

In the case of short Nimcha blades being suited together on long Omani hilts these also hit the tourists shelves hard since they are quite appealing and almost squeeze through as genuine ... but hopefully this is now fully understood and at least forum are aware of the facts.

I mean anyone or should I say any collector who goes to the souk knowing that these are knocked up hilts aimed at the tourist market is advised to beware. Unless, of course, they were able to apply a correctly researched hilt.

My records go back to 1970 and are tied by the fact that in Muscat the main workshop/souk shop combination is owned by people with the same tribal name.

They say that with tourism no matter what, in the end, the client will buy what they like.... which is understandable when you consider that a 4,000 person cruise ship on a 2 day stop over parked 500 yards from the main Mutrah Souk entrance doesn't have time to educate its client base on all the pitfalls of the souk ...

They just pump them through 30 at a time in small hordes of frenzied bargain snatchers." 'Ere Mildred look at this" ... "It says 'ere Chinese sword made from Meteorite 10,000,000 year old" ... "Ooh is it signed" ... ? "Can I pay by cash"? ... "Do I have to bargain"...?

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.