An Overview on The Modern Arabian Saif

[A.alnakkas]

Hello all,

I have been planning to write about this subject for a while and finally had an opening to do so.

Here in the gulf, the tradition of the sword is still alive through the ardha and special occasions. New swords, old ones and heirlooms are still brought out of their protective boxes to adorn their wielders in weddings, dances and national days.

I have had the pleasure since 2012 to befriend some of the sword makers/restorers from Qatar and Bahrain and get to handle some of their works and even own some of it. They have kept the tradition alive but also introduced new concepts, styles and new material to the tradition which made the usual Arabian sword decorated with the agrab and usual pattern evolve into variant types that contain both old and new designs. Some designs were even adopted from different cultures and absorbed into the modern Arab sword which spawned some interesting new swords.

Yet even though new designs are being made, the old Arabian style is still preferred. Many maintain the heirlooms left to them by their father's and grandfathers, restoring simple bits here and there (mainly leather and worn out ivory/bone hilt slabs) while maintaining the overall silver/gold scabbard mounts.

There is a large demand for swords; this meant that not all swords will have old blades (the most favoured is wootz which is expensive) so the sword makers now use modern steel blades of different quality, ranging from stainless to high carbon steel. The least favoured is pattern welded swords which are often seen as imitation of wootz even though some are quite well made and old. Wootz is preferred for its aesthetic value and as status swords. Some would even own two or more swords, the wootz ones will be for dress only and a modern made blade will be for ardha. The reason for this being that they finally realized that bashing wootz swords is not a good idea, these swords arent really mythical :-)

To explain more, I spoke before about a game named Mhayal often done in Ardha (especially in Bahrain and Qatar) where two dancers engage in mock combat. In the past, the duellers would rely on dodges only without blocking and parrying with the swords but the new generation doesnt do that and often they would use their precious wootz swords to parry a strike and that leads to unnecessary damage. To counter this, the sword makers now make well made, balanced high carbon steel swords that can take some heavy beating. Another solution that more experienced collectors in Qatar and Bahrain do is to use military blades from Old European swords. These are far more strong in absorbing strikes.

There is alot I want to share but it needs alot more than this post. Its a research I hope to conclude whenever I can and publish. But for now, I'll show some samples of the modern Arabian saif (the swords in the pictures are all Qatari made)

[A.alnakkas]

The two swords shown are of the mediocre quality. the white one has mounts made of gold plated bronze and the brown one is gold plated aluminium.

Both blades are high carbon, balanced and VERY light.

[A.alnakkas]

This sword is mine. The mounts are made of 989 silver in traditional style. All hand made.

The blade is an old Persian wootz blade that came with no mounts :-)

[A.alnakkas]

Cant post a wootz sword without showing the pattern! (I kept the patina, didnt etch the blade)

[Battara]

Good to know that the traditions are alive and well over there.

Thanks for posting these!

[Iain]

Great post! Regarding the newly made blades, are the forged locally? Made from available steel scrap and heat treated? Or imported from another region like India?

From an outside perspective it seems like these swords are often remounted, which can be frustrating for the collector who might like to acquire one with mounts the same age as the blade. Are any parts of the mounts typically recycled? Perhaps guards?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as you continue to share information on the topic!