Zanzibar or Omani Jambiya?

[mrcjgscott]

Hello Ibrahiim,

I spoke to the owner this morning, and passed on the information recieved so far, which was of great interest, and he sends his sincere thanks.

He says the only thing he would question is the date, as the dagger was brought home by his great grandfather, and has been in the family for roughly 100 years, his great grandfather having retired in 1920.

I also enquired the blade length, which in a straight line is six inches.

Interesting that you mention the discs being replacements, this would fit in with my theory that the hilt has been repaired in the past. I presume that is fairly normal for a working dagger?

Kind regards,

Chris

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by mrcjgscott

Hello Ibrahiim,

I spoke to the owner this morning, and passed on the information recieved so far, which was of great interest, and he sends his sincere thanks.

He says the only thing he would question is the date, as the dagger was brought home by his great grandfather, and has been in the family for roughly 100 years, his great grandfather having retired in 1920.

I also enquired the blade length, which in a straight line is six inches.

Interesting that you mention the discs being replacements, this would fit in with my theory that the hilt has been repaired in the past. I presume that is fairly normal for a working dagger?

Kind regards,

Chris

Well there you have it... Dating artefacts that have been in deep storage or just sitting being an exhibit is really hard... armed with those facts and vectoring in those details makes it much more accurate to deduce...The weapon is at least 100 years old. It has probable repairs to the hilt in the shape of those non silver rings... thus 100 plus say 20 years added for the repair time scale ...add on 10 years = 130 YEARS OLD.... which is quite old for a Khanjar... Replacing parts is completely normal...again making age guestimates almost impossible...Old blades are often re used time and again... as are Rhino Hilts.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[mrcjgscott]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Well there you have it... Dating artefacts that have been in deep storage or just sitting being an exhibit is really hard... armed with those facts and vectoring in those details makes it much more accurate to deduce...The weapon is at least 100 years old. It has probable repairs to the hilt in the shape of those non silver rings... thus 100 plus say 20 years added for the repair time scale ...add on 10 years = 130 YEARS OLD.... which is quite old for a Khanjar... Replacing parts is completely normal...again making age guestimates almost impossible...Old blades are often re used time and again... as are Rhino Hilts.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Thank you Ibrahiim,

Dating most things can be difficult merely from photographs I find, so thank you for the revised date estimate. That would seem to fit in with what I have learned about the dagger.

It would seem "Khanjar" share many characteristics with other traditional regional knives, such as long use, reuse of good old blades and repair of parts to keep them in service, etc.

When things like that are broken down, it seems that most people really weren't too different, despite geographic contrast.

All the best, and thanks again.

Chris