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Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi
Salaams eftihis~ I was meaning to add a post about the transition of Karbela and Turkish weapons down the red sea and across the Arabian region. I was considering the subject of "the adoption of the Hussars swords into the French armoury" and thus the Napoleonic wars and particularly Egypt and thus the influence onto arab swords.
I recently reintroduced the whole question of Hussars weapons onto the Ethnographic Forum with that in mind ~ clearly it is a subject that straddles both discussion groups. The incredible thread on that subject can be found on FORUM SEARCH...by typing in Hussars Swords and look for Notes on development of modern sabers - Role of Eastern Europe & the Hussars
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
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Hi Ibrahiim,
Thank you again for bringing this thread forward!
Interesting observations on the cross cultural diffusion of these blade forms as they were adopted into European types of swords. The influences of Ottoman swords of course did spread widely throughout thier empire and impacted even regions outside as well in varying degree through trade and diplomatic contacts. This is in my opinion the case with Arabian swords in more definition than European cavalry influences, at least prior to the 19th century where Ottomans began to westernize, ironically readopting various elements they had originally influenced in the first place.
The most notable influence of European cavalry swords on Arabian sabres was the increased availability of European blades, especially in the 18th and into 19th century. Hungarian blades, naturally strongly associated with 'hussar' blades (one of the decorative characters was a hussar along with military panoplies) were often found on Arabian sabres, particularly the distinct Syrian type hilts. I have even seen these carelessly misidentified as Hungarian hussar sabres in catalogues.
It has been long held that the Ottoman style hilt sabres were adopted into the European sabre forms from contact with them during the Egyptian campaigns at the end of the 18th century. At this time these were of course in use throughout Ottoman controlled regions, including much of the Arabian littoral.
The karabela is essentially a sabre with blade of the same forms used on other sabres, but with a distinctive trilobate style hilt often presumed of stylized birdhead character, the term applied more to that hilt than the sabre overall. The etymology of the term remains unclear, but is often considered to come from the city Kerbala, as well as some other suggestions ("The Polish Sabre" Jan Ostrowski ). This type sword has been labeled the national sword of Poland for parade swords of the type (naturally they were used in combat as well in many cases) but also much favored in Arabian cases. Here again I would presume the source of influence to be Ottoman swords of this 'karabela' type which influenced the Polish forms, and also the Arabian regions under Ottoman suzerainty.
Again, excellent opportunity to look seriously into developments of these sword forms and cross cultural influences.
All the best,
Jim