kronckew, your last post here reminded me of 'The Sinbad Voyage', by Tim Severin. The Islamic influence is spread along North Africa, The Horn of Africa, to Oman/ Yemen/ Saudi Arabia, along the maritime trading routes through to India, Sri Lanka and South east Asia. That cultural interconnection over centuries surely brought stylistic and technological influences from Islamic countries of the Middle east , through to South East asia, (along with some architectural forms, social customs, arabic language, etc etc). It's hardly suprising then that there are similarities in edged weapons where there has been cultural connections since the early middle ages.
