The Original Dhu'l-Faqar

[AhmedH]

Originally Posted by ariel

Never knew Turks to be so teary-eyed and gullible.... Must have been hell of a love story to force them to circumvent every known museum protocol:-)

When I wanted to register my masters dissertation, I contacted Professor Salah el-Beheiry (former dean of the Faculty of Archaeology- Cairo University) in order to accept his supervision over my dissertation. I chose the title: "The Arab Sword in the Islamic World from the Dawn of Islam till the Fall of the Umayyad Caliphate in AH 132/ 750 CE". Though he was very happy that I chose him for supervision, he insisted that Professor Hussein Eleiwa (former dean of the Faculty of Arts- Mansourah University) to be associate supervisor of my dissertation. Professor el-Beheiry defended his decision by saying that Professor Eleiwa studied the swords in Topkapi and the Askeri Museum before (these were part of his field studies for his PhD thesis which he obtained in 1974).

Now the first thing Eleiwa did was to try to convince el-Beheiry that he was worthy of his choice. So very hastily, he informed el-Beheiry that this title was unacceptable. Why??? Because, according to the conclusion of the field studies that were done by Prof. Yucel (whom Eleiwa was the one who read him the Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman inscriptions) and Eleiwa himself, and later David Alexander, that these swords actually referred to much later periods; especially from the 14th to the 17th centuries CE.

Frankly, I found what he said to be laughable. I then confronted Prof. Eleiwa and told him that that could not be true. I even asked him the what the difference was between Arab blades referring to the 7th-8th centuries CE, and the straight double-edged swords that were manufactured by the Mamluks...but he got very angry. He started claiming that I was still "crawling in this field", and that I was "very young and inexperienced" and "flamboyant and euphoric"...but I knew what I was saying back then.

BTW, that was in September-November 2000. I was 24 years old back then.

I was greatly upset, and I even informed Professor el-Beheiry that there was no need for Professor Eleiwa to be an associate supervisor for my masters dissertation, because simply, he'll ruin it. But el-Beheiry replied that I had to do what Eleiwa shall dictate. I was forced to comply.

When I confronted Eleiwa again, he asked me why I wanted to take this particular topic, so I answered that the superior Arab arms have contributed to the victories of the early Muslims in their wars against the Persians, Byzantines, Turks, Indians, Chinese, and the Visigoths. So he said that the period of the swords that I'll study should range from 600 CE (although he claimed that I won't be able to find blades that refer to that period) until the fall of Baghdad in 1258 CE. He claimed that such a long period may offer some swords in Topkapi and the Military (Askeri) Museums.

Thus I had to study the swords of the Arabs and non-Arabs from 600 till 1258 CE...and compare between them...in a thorough study!!! That for my masters dissertation???????????!!!!!!!!!LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!! So, it was. I very well remember before signing his acceptance of supervision that el-Beheiry looked at me with tears in his eyes and told me: "Wasn't the title that you chose better than this one?? It's a master dissertation after all??" So I replied: "You're the one who insisted on his supervision!" And so it was.