Yemeni Sayfs? Omani Kattaras?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Recently there were published here, some pics of the so called Omani Battle Sword which had recently had modern made covering added to the bare hilt, and scabbards made.
My question relates to the Yemeni/Saudi swords which feature in this thread. Did they ever have a covering over the metal handle, and if so, what did it look like?
Stu

Salaams kahnjar1. This is an excellent question.

In respect of the pictures at #1, which you describe as Yemeni / Saudi swords I suspected that these were like the backyard knocking shop redone hilts on European blades at a recent thread http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16605 and having replaced Rhino holts later used on Jambia... the resulting swords then spuriously offered through other souks and marketed generally as ethnographic items etc etc i.e. tourist swords. ( I now suggest that this was incorrect and a re-appraisal is required insofar as these long Saudia Yemen hilts)

Conversely I have never seen a leather covered hilt on these long metal hilts AND THUS THE REAPPRAISAL OFFERED BY A CLOSER SCRUTINY OF # 1. What makes it so suspicious is the quantity at which they are appearing... Mutrah has scores of them. It is for this reason that I suspected that they were in plentiful supply having perhaps been done relatively recently and in the same time frame and reasoning as the others. In other words they appeared direct from the Yemeni / Saudia workshops direct onto the local and neighboring countries markets as metal hilts with virtually no provenance. ( THIS IS NOW REFUTED BACKED UP BY THE SCABBARD SHOTS AT 1)

Having carefully looked at #1 pictures with scabbards I begin to reframe on that hypothesis and for that reason urge a re-opening on the debate since The scabbards look like they were deliberately fitted at the same time as the hilts...which look old(Whereas most examples I have seen are without scabbards)...It begs the question "What is the provenance on these long metal hilts" ?

I think we could be looking at a species of Yemeni/Saudia Sword from the 19th C or before with a related hilt to the Omani Battle Sword except that it is stretched to conform with the longer blade for balance.

It can be noted therefor that this is a see-sawing debate as originally that was mooted on the longer thread on Omani Kattara but changed.

This is entirely different from Omani Battle Swords which as you are aware are the only true battlesword in the Omani Armoury. See http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16482

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.