Pulwar sword with engraved blade

[Jim McDougall]

An interesting old blade, and I would agree with Ibrahiim in post #16, that these devotional panels in deep relief are probably motivated by some degree of talismanic potential, likely much in the same manner of the thuluth which was often used on Sudanese arms and with Mamluk origins.

In this case these panels resemble those seen on the Persian trade blades with the Assad Adullah cartouches of the 19th century. Considering the prevalent infuences and contact from Persia it seems quite in place here.

As Ariel has noted the brass or notably present disc in the center of the crossguard section of the hilt is consistently seen on paluoars and often tulwars associated with these northern regions. The profiling and down turned quillons with the stylized dragon are also constant features on these hilts.

The three dots are indeed significant and interestingly have key talismanic symbolism as Ibrahiim has noted. His observations on the four circles added around the brass center dot are most compelling regarding the apotropaic for Fatima ('five in your eye') which protects against the evil eye.

Returning to the three dots, in Central Asian context, these occur consistently and are typically regarded as the 'cintamani' or the symbol used by Tamerlane, with varying descriptions of thief origins. While the term 'cintamani' is often characterized by an additional three wavy lines and supposed to represent the spots of the leopard and stripes of the tiger and used as motif on textiles of these regions..the cintamani term is widely use for this three dot motif.

I have seen these three dots notably on back straps of Central Asian shamshirs and other weapons of these regions and seem invariably to refer to Tamerlane and this particular heritage .

[francantolin]

Hello,
thank's everybody for all specific comments !

Ariel, if you have, willingly a picture of a recent work of this kind for compare.

[ariel]

Post#9, the uppermost picture: is it my imagination, or did this blade have earlier markings?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

An interesting old blade, and I would agree with Ibrahiim in post #16, that these devotional panels in deep relief are probably motivated by some degree of talismanic potential, likely much in the same manner of the thuluth which was often used on Sudanese arms and with Mamluk origins.

In this case these panels resemble those seen on the Persian trade blades with the Assad Adullah cartouches of the 19th century. Considering the prevalent infuences and contact from Persia it seems quite in place here.

As Ariel has noted the brass or notably present disc in the center of the crossguard section of the hilt is consistently seen on paluoars and often tulwars associated with these northern regions. The profiling and down turned quillons with the stylized dragon are also constant features on these hilts.

The three dots are indeed significant and interestingly have key talismanic symbolism as Ibrahiim has noted. His observations on the four circles added around the brass center dot are most compelling regarding the apotropaic for Fatima ('five in your eye') which protects against the evil eye.

Returning to the three dots, in Central Asian context, these occur consistently and are typically regarded as the 'cintamani' or the symbol used by Tamerlane, with varying descriptions of thief origins. While the term 'cintamani' is often characterized by an additional three wavy lines and supposed to represent the spots of the leopard and stripes of the tiger and used as motif on textiles of these regions..the cintamani term is widely use for this three dot motif.

I have seen these three dots notably on back straps of Central Asian shamshirs and other weapons of these regions and seem invariably to refer to Tamerlane and this particular heritage .

Salaams Jim, As ever perfectly noted and well researched...In Morocco I have discovered that the triangle is representative of the evil eye...and often occurs in Berber textile decoration etc. Commonly called el ain...The Eye . The inverted triangle represents the eyebrow... The saying for heres 5 in your eye is ...."khamsa fi ainek"...and beautifully illustrated in the book Arts and Crafts of Morocco by James F Jereb, Thames and Hudson.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Gavin Nugent]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

The three dots are indeed significant and interestingly have key talismanic symbolism as Ibrahiim has noted. His observations on the four circles added around the brass center dot are most compelling regarding the apotropaic for Fatima ('five in your eye') which protects against the evil eye.

Returning to the three dots, in Central Asian context, these occur consistently and are typically regarded as the 'cintamani' or the symbol used by Tamerlane, with varying descriptions of thief origins. While the term 'cintamani' is often characterized by an additional three wavy lines and supposed to represent the spots of the leopard and stripes of the tiger and used as motif on textiles of these regions..the cintamani term is widely use for this three dot motif.

I have seen these three dots notably on back straps of Central Asian shamshirs and other weapons of these regions and seem invariably to refer to Tamerlane and this particular heritage .

It is interesting just how far the 3 dots spread.

I have the 3 dot inlay at the base of a very fine Malay Bugis Chief Keris in my collection and on of those swords that I have sold they were seen on these Afghan sabres types, a Tulwar with a Persian blade, other Tulwar and also including early Syrian Shamshir.
Most recently sold, now with members here, a Moro Kampilan and an Achang/Yunnan Dah of very high quality....the motif has travelled far and wide....one thing in common with all of these regions is the Islamic faith.

Whilst Timur was influential and being well documented as having this arrangement as his banner, I think Ibrahiim is on the right path with what he notes above.

Gavin

[Jens Nordlunde]

The Mughals may have brought the three dots to India, but they were already known there representing Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. These three Hindu gods could also be represented by the sign og OM.

[ALEX]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

The Mughals may have brought the three dots to India, but they were already known there representing Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. These three Hindu gods could also be represented by the sign og OM.

You got it, Jens!
And there are more gods with trinity aspect: in Babylon, Sumeria, Ancient Egypt, Greece, etc. and India of course) "Triratna" is a holy Buddist belief, there are also "three jewels" and "three bodies" concepts. There are numerous examples of 3dot pattern in Oriental/Asian arts, even "emperor" in Chinese consists of 3 horizontal lines, representing 3 elements, and the motif is dated to 2000 B.C.! Similar is seen in old Turkic culture (Orkhon inscriptions), etc, etc.

[Mercenary]

All this triplicity it is a philosophical categories. Please, believe me, the owner of this sword with three holes never thought about any Trinity or three States of matter. Otherwise we should meet such holes in the folk tradition of decorations of temples, images, and more.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Mercenary

All this triplicity it is a philosophical categories. Please, believe me, the owner of this sword with three holes never thought about any Trinity or three States of matter. Otherwise we should meet such holes in the folk tradition of decorations of temples, images, and more.

Probably quite true. All we need to do is to know what this owner indeed WAS thinking.

[ariel]

Jim,
Don't you have a Ouija board? :-)

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Probably quite true. All we need to do is to know what this owner indeed WAS thinking.

Salaams Jim, That at least cheered me up

All these odd signs on blades not only baffle the present day enthusiasts but probably puzzled a lot of folks in the past. I tie the two geometries of the 5 dots and the 3 dots together with Islamic ideas (beliefs and symbols)... In addition it has a large amount of Islamic Script...It should be remembered that the entire script is in its own right Talismanic.. These clues are therefor all probably linked ... Thus they are linked probably to the same general Talismanic theme of protection against evil..

The use of the figure 3 flows across boundaries and can be seen for example, in the Trio in Juncta (Trinity) in the Fleur de Lys which enters European Heraldry with its design style. I note your Tamerlane details and other regions from Alex and Jens above...however, I think in this case the dots are related and supported since the blade is Islamic scripted pointing to the Islamic nature of the blades decoration.

Mercenary ..Good points but in the case of the 3 dots and triangles they are very much represented in the Arab countries and can be seen...in rugs and textiles as well as on clothing and placed on Jewellery across the entire Islamic spectrum as well as the geometric figure 5 on pendants and finger rings...and the hand as a decorative piece of jewellery giving protection to the owner.

I applaud the award of the Nobel Prize and look forward to the presentation!

As an after note did you notice the single dot lower down the blade... This dot represents the centre of the universe ... again Talismanic.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.