The Arabs had contacts with the Eatsern Roman Empire as well, and the Romans had contact with the Bulgarians, the Avars and the Magyars, all of whom used the sabre. There is a sabre found in a grave in North-Eastern Bulgaria, dated to the 8th century based on artefacts surrounding it (the reference is in Bulgarian). The dating may be questionable, but one has to keep in mind that it might have been a heirloom, which could potentially make it older. I believe pictorial evidence suggests that the sabre was popular enough in Constantinople in the 10th century, as Emperors are depicted with it. It would be interested to see if there are any frescoes in Eastern Anatolia. Anyway, this has little to do with the main question in this topic, but it supports the idea that the Arabs knew of the sword earlier.
I believe that the technological skills and development of Central Asian peoples tend to be underestimated. There are far more sabres than straight sword found in nowadays Bulgaria, dating to the 8th-10th centuries. Some of them undoubtedly were brought by the Magyars, but the fact stands that sabres were prevalent and straight swords wre not, even though the production centers in the Rhein were closer than any centers in Persia, and let alone China. There wither was huge trade in blades, or the Bulgarians somehow managed to produce them themselves. I think the answer might be somewhere in the middle - perhaps instead of swords, the trade was mainly of ingots. In the European Armoury it was discussed that there is a high probability that some of the Northern European swords may have been forged in Scandinavia with wootz, imported all the way from India. If true, this could potentially explain a lot.
Finally, I do not find it surprising that peoples, who relied on weapons for their survival, had skilled bladesmiths. Apart from horses and bows, what was really more important to Central Asian nomads than their blades?
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