ID Omani Jambiya

[A.alnakkas]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams A.alnakkas: That means 3 million Omani people have got it wrong then...? I will just go out and tell them Lofty ~ not be a moment...

Yes actually, they are wrong. The word Khanjar is a persian word. Like many many (even pre-islamic) persian words that were adopted by the arabs. This is nothing new.

The word cannot be reduced to any form like all arabic words. The only issue I have currently is not being able to back this up with academic research but then again nothing (Academic) can be found on the net. But I managed to find lists that include khanjar as one of the many words adopted from Persian. Regardless, I am a university student and we have Arabic professors, I'll get academic info soon just so you know am not pulling this one out of nowhere. :P

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Your detail on Janbiyya is of course perfectly correct though Khanjar appears to be Arabic.. perhaps a local Arabic word here...It occurs in the Funoon from an ancient dance completed with Khanjar so it goes back to 1400 years at least... The Khanjar did not appear in India til 500 years ago according to museum references and it is not an original Indian word.

I wasnt suggesting that Omani's use the term Janbiya. Rather that the term Janbiya (derived from jnb) is a pure arab word used by southern Arabs (fine, excluding omanis :-))

Also, whether India has this word or not is irrelevant since Indians have been adopting persian words aswell.

Now how about the Kurds and the Turks? or do they adopt the term from Oman?