Indonesian Riddle - Who knows what this is?

[erikscollectables]

What do you think the use would have been with this amount of talismanic script? Ceremonial only or also fighting? (the point was chipped off but not recently)

I also go for rehilted but long (maybe more than 100 years) ago or so as the current hilt also has a lot of age.

Erik

Originally Posted by fearn

Looking at it some more, I'm not so sure that the writings were done at two different times. Basically, the design layout is too unified, and I don't see evidence that one artist scraped off the design of another in order to make room for his design, which the artist would need to, given that the Hindu and Muslim motifs are mixed..

What I'd suggest is that the blade might in fact be talismanic in some way. Since magical objects often blend faiths (at least in Europe), I think the combination of Muslim and Hindu religious symbology may have been deliberate. The individual motifs may have even been done by different artists, but there was a single design overall, and the blade decorations were put together all at once.

Perhaps it has been rehilted, too?

Best,

F

[fearn]

Originally Posted by erikscollectables

What do you think the use would have been with this amount of talismanic script? Ceremonial only or also fighting? (the point was chipped off but not recently)

I also go for rehilted but long (maybe more than 100 years) ago or so as the current hilt also has a lot of age.

Erik

Not sure about the amount of talismanic stuff. My guess would be superstition (i.e. the owner or gift-giver wanted to make sure this blade was "lucky"), but I don't know enough about Indonesian shamanism (whatever the local version is) to know whether this would be appropriate as a spiritual/ceremonial weapon.

Was it used? You can tell us. There is that chipped tip, but from the photos, I can't tell whether the blade has been reground, or whether it was never used. Right now, I don't see any signs of use damage (other than the tip), and absent that, it's hard to tell whether it was ever used.

Best,

F

[Lew]

Here is one I owned in 2001 it also had inscriptions on the blade.

[asomotif]

Hello Erik,

Interesting blade. Where do you keep finding them

Maybe this weapon was made for a muslim living on Borneo ?

Lews example also shows some borneo influence, but Sumatra springs to mind as well on that one.

[erikscollectables]

Originally Posted by LOUIEBLADES

Here is one I owned in 2001 it also had inscriptions on the blade.

Do you still have a photo of the inscriptions that it had?
What was the attribution of your piece?

Erik

[Henk]

Great sword and a great find.

In my opinion definitely Borneo.
My first thought was a rehilted parang ihlang.

[asomotif]

Hello Erik,

Somebody noticed some square motifs on the blade similar to the parang nabur decoration :

[erikscollectables]

Originally Posted by asomotif

Hello Erik,

Somebody noticed some square motifs on the blade similar to the parang nabur decoration :

Interesting! A forumite with knowledge of the Arabic knowledge called this wafak - arabic numeric/alphabet configuration with probably a talismanic reason and not translatable.

Would like a complete picture of the parang if possible....

Regards, Erik