Gigantic Kindjals

AvtoGaz · 20th January 2024, 03:07 AM

These beasts turn up every now and again, they usually are over 120 centimeters in length.

Although these are decorated in a manner very befitting of Qajar-era Persian arms, almost all of them seem to be linked in some way to Armenians. Most of them have Armenian letters etched on their blades, Armenian signatures, or Christian imagery such as images of the Virgin Mary. One of these examples below comes directly from the Armenian state History Museum.

This begs the question for me, where were these made? Obviously, They are ritualistic weapons. I have seen some theorize that they were used for the Ashura shia Islamic ritual, which involves using weapons to inflict wounds on oneself. Weapons such as Qaddaras and more normally-sized Kindjals were widely used for this ritual in Iran and Azerbaijan.

Yet, given the fact that some examples contain Christian iconography, I find this to be very doubtful. Additionally, although there were many Armenians living in Iran during the 19th century, they were not allowed to own weapons of any kind. This is why, as far as I have seen, there are next to no other weapons decorated in a distinctly Persian fashion that have any Armenian characteristics.

This begs the question, where exactly are these from and what exactly were they used for?

20th January 2024, 03:07 AM	#1
AvtoGaz Member Join Date: Dec 2022 Posts: 33	Gigantic Kindjals These beasts turn up every now and again, they usually are over 120 centimeters in length. Although these are decorated in a manner very befitting of Qajar-era Persian arms, almost all of them seem to be linked in some way to Armenians. Most of them have Armenian letters etched on their blades, Armenian signatures, or Christian imagery such as images of the Virgin Mary. One of these examples below comes directly from the Armenian state History Museum. This begs the question for me, where were these made? Obviously, They are ritualistic weapons. I have seen some theorize that they were used for the Ashura shia Islamic ritual, which involves using weapons to inflict wounds on oneself. Weapons such as Qaddaras and more normally-sized Kindjals were widely used for this ritual in Iran and Azerbaijan. Yet, given the fact that some examples contain Christian iconography, I find this to be very doubtful. Additionally, although there were many Armenians living in Iran during the 19th century, they were not allowed to own weapons of any kind. This is why, as far as I have seen, there are next to no other weapons decorated in a distinctly Persian fashion that have any Armenian characteristics. This begs the question, where exactly are these from and what exactly were they used for? Attached Images