Ethnographic Arms & Armour
Bibliography for Asia

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This section remains far from completion. The first phase will fill in with references for non-European arms and armour and the second phase will be a re-working of the existing Mediaeval Sword bibliography pages.

Askeri Müze (Military Museum) (Istanbul: Askeri Müze ve Kültür Sitesi Komutanli, 1993)
(Turkish and English language) A color catalogue illustrating many of the displays in Turkey's national Military Museum. In addition to expected examples of arms relevant to modernTurkey's history, the collection also incorporates much of what comprised the Ottoman Empire's arsenal and trophy hall, once housed in the old Saint Irene church, and is thus strong in regional European and near-Eastern material.

Elgood, Robert (editor), Islamic Arms and Armour (London: Scolar Press, 1979)
A series of academic essays of amazing diversity by several authors, illustrated with monochrome and color photographs.
   Robert Elgood - Preface
   Wilhelm P. Bauer - A scientific examination of the applied decoration on two Indian swords
   L. P. Elwell-Sutton - Persian armour inscriptions
   Torben W. Flindt - Some nineteenth-century arms from Bukhara
   Michael V. Gorelik - Oriental armour of the Near and Middle East from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries as shown in works of art
   A. Ivanov - A group of Iranian daggers of the period from the fifteenth century to the beginning of the seventeenth, with Persian inscriptions
   J. D. Latham and W. Paterson - Archery in the lands of Eastern Islam
   Edward McEwen - The Chahar Kham or 'four-curved' bow of India
   A. S. Melikian-Chirvani - Bucklers, covers or cymbals? A twelfth-century riddle from Eastern Iran
   A. S. Melikian-Chirvani - The tabar of a Turkish Dervish
   A. S. Melikian-Chirvani - The tabarzins of Lotf'ali
   Y. A. Miller - Iranian swords of the seventeenth century with Russian inscriptions in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum
   Helmut Nickel - A Mamluk axe
   D. Nicolle - An introduction to arms and warfare in classical Islam
   G. Tantum - Muslim warfare: a study of a medieval Muslim treatise on the art of war
   A. R. Zaky - Medieval Arab arms
   Zygulski Jr - Islamic weapons in Polish collections and their provenance

Groneman, Isaäc with a preface and introduction by David van Duren, The Javanese Kris (Leiden: C. Zwartenkot Art Books and KITLV Press, 2009)
An English translation of Isaäc Groneman's groundbreaking and enduring publications from the early twentith century.
Detailed review by Albert G. van Zonneveld

Hoyland, Robert G. and Gilmour, Brian, Medieval Islamic Swords & Swordmaking: Kindi's Treatise "On Swords and Their Kinds" (Oxford: The E. J. W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 2006)
A translation of the 9th century manuscripts of al-Kindi concerning swords and their metallurgy with extensive annotation and commentary.
Detailed Review by Philip Tom

Mayer, L. A., Islamic Armourers and their Works (Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1962)
(English with interspersed French language) An alphabetic listing of Islamic swordsmiths and cannonmakers with reference to known works in public collections and photographs of many (mostly blade) markings and signatures. An extensive bibliography is included.

Nicolle, David, Early Medieval Islamic Arms and Armour (Cáceres: Instituto de Estudios Sobre Armas Antiguas, 1976)
(English language with a brief Spanish summary) A survey as suggested by the title which is predominantly illustrated with line drawings adapted from artworks contemporary with the periods under discussion.

Van Zonneveld, Albert G., Traditional Weapons of the Indonesian Archipelago (Leiden: C. Zwartenkot Art Books, 2001)
An excellent and essential guide to the great diversity of arms, related tools and armour from the cultures comprising modern Indonesia. The work is arranged alphabetically as a glossary with both specific local names and generic type names and includes many color photographs and line drawings.

Yücel, Ünsal, Islamic Swords and Swordsmiths (Istanbul: Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture, 2001)
A handsomely produced volume detailing many of Islam's sacred swords housed in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul with color pictures and also including a section of discussion and descriptions with monochrome photographs of medieval and later Islamic swords in The Topkapi Palace collection as weall as those in the Military Museum in Istanbul. A section on Islamic swordsmiths is also included.

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