Enfield made Afghani Pulwar

[Marcus]

Let’s assume that this blade was made by the Enfield armory, as if for an1853 pattern Cavalry Trooper Saber. Since Enfield was not an exporter per se, I think that it is reasonable to guess that the blade was diverted to British India through some official channel. Britain was certainly interested in courting the favor of local leaders both inside and outside of Kabul, so I would speculate that either the blade or the complete sword was intended as a gift. Of course a complete sword would make the better gift, so the question then is where was the blade assembled with the hilt. The three choices I imagine would be England, British India, or Afghanistan. I doubt if this workmanship, with such a nice rendition of the local style and an Arabic invocation, originated in England, so I would guess either British India, or Afghanistan. I would lean toward the former.

One could also ask whether the scabbard was adapted from a British military scabbard. The standard scabbards were steel and this scabbard appears to have a leather cover glued on top of a rigid core, which could easily have been adapted from the original steel scabbard with the drag removed.

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Marcus,
Well reasoned as always, and these puluaors of yours are fascinating. It seems you have been reading 'The Great Game' by Hopkirk, as I recall you noted. These regions were a hotbed of intrigue in those days just as they remain today.
In the 19th century into the early 20th, Afghanistan was actually considered part of India as its Northwest Frontier. It is true that a great deal of diplomatic effort was centered there and Great Britain was subsidizing the development of industry, infrastructure and many military considerations.
The introduction of British weaponry and uniform into the assemblage of Afghan army units was sometimes curious, which included instances of 'Albert' metal helmets and kilts.

As previously mentioned, the Machin Khana factory in Kabul, was engaged in producing British arms under their subsidy and direction. There were likely other workshops and venues also involved in supplying forces there which were outside official channels. These naturally were unrecorded officially so difficult to verify.

This was a situation long well established in the Raj, and many arms came into India without government marks or the ISD (India Stores Dept) stamps. Also, makers indeed produced blades intended to appear to be of British origin (post #12, 'made in EGland, misspell).

The scabbard was no doubt in imitation of British military style, and the carry rings are positioned accordingly, with the chape sleeve tooled with openwork as in many cases of this Afghan style preference. The scabbards of the Afghan military style swords have different carry systems.

There is also no doubt that this hilt was fashioned in these Afghan regions (part of British India) in accordance with traditional motif and design, based on the Persian/Ottoman decorative styles present in Central Asia for over two centuries.

The blade remains the anomaly in whether it was produced in the Enfield factory in England, or indeed produced in one of the quasi-British enterprises using an acquired 'Enfield' stamp, which does not seem far fetched.
The officers and appointed officials would of course have been likely to carry these kinds of amalgamated arms of British military and traditional style in this climate of development and British intervention.

The numbers of British blades mounted in Indian swords is well known, and many of the M1796 blades were indeed captured as mentioned previously resulting in Indian preference for this pattern blade. Most of these instances were many years earlier during the Sikh wars etc. In later times however, as probably in instances such as these later examples, it seems that more commercial venues would be the case.

[Marcus]

“I was unable to show my friendship publicly, because my people were ignorant and fanatical. If I showed any inclination toward the English, my people would call me an infidel for joining hands with infidels.”*

* quote attributed to Abdur Rahman, the Emir of Afghanistan who made peace with the British at the end of the second Anglo-Afghan war. Reported in “the Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Marcus

“I was unable to show my friendship publicly, because my people were ignorant and fanatical. If I showed any inclination toward the English, my people would call me an infidel for joining hands with infidels.”*

* quote attributed to Abdur Rahman, the Emir of Afghanistan who made peace with the British at the end of the second Anglo-Afghan war. Reported in “the Great Game” by Peter Hopkirk

Well cited. My son; son in law and grandson all served in Afghanistan.
It seems things there have always been so.