Odd Sword

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Iain

I am slightly unsure what is considered 'odd' about this sword. Its a European blade of likely Solingen make.

It is not Ethiopian in anyway.

The hilt appears to be typical for Omani remounts. But I am surprised Ibrahiim hasn't pointed that out?

Salaams Iain ..Yes you are partly right since I thought I would let people have a go at this without too much prompting from me.

Its odd because the blade marks are as you say undecipherable with a peculiar W and weird looking D and another D then a 1 then a very odd looking S or 5 .... So it looks like W D D 1 5 or rather 5 1 D D M

The hilt is an extended job. It looks like an Omanified sword particularly with the pommel of a type I am not familiar with in terms of the 6 pointed star decoration.. Thus, odd, from that standpoint.

I would say this was a European export blade which has had the Omani hilt extension and therefor likely to have journeyed along the Africa(Ethiopia) to Sanaa to Muttrah route (though oddly this came in as a photo only so I cant give it the bend test) ...and having ended up in a large private collection.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.