Yemeni Curved Sword

Jim McDougall · 29th January 2017, 04:41 PM

Ariel, good note on that mark. It does seem like that was a Caucasian mark. It always intrigued me on what it represented. I once thought perhaps it might be a monstrance or some sort of religious configuration. I need to find those notes, but Caucasian seems a good possibility.

On the kattaras, I think we found some time ago that there was apparently differentiation in the locally applied terms. The straight blade forms of these are simply sa'if, while these with curved blades are termed kattara.

It is much like the term pallasche reserved for straight bladed swords, while sabre or more descriptive variations refer to curved blade swords.
The name game is the bane of our understanding of terms for arms, and often commonly used terms are confounding when trying to establish logic or reason.

I think if anyone, at the risk of their sanity, took on the daunting task of cataloguing and trying to explain the spectrum of terms and words describing edged weapons in their various contexts, it would be astounding .
Naturally they would have to navigate through the maelstrom of transliterations, colloquial slang and nicknames and most confounding of all, the web of 'collectors terms'.

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29th January 2017, 04:41 PM	#10
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,288	Ariel, good note on that mark. It does seem like that was a Caucasian mark. It always intrigued me on what it represented. I once thought perhaps it might be a monstrance or some sort of religious configuration. I need to find those notes, but Caucasian seems a good possibility. On the kattaras, I think we found some time ago that there was apparently differentiation in the locally applied terms. The straight blade forms of these are simply sa'if, while these with curved blades are termed kattara. It is much like the term pallasche reserved for straight bladed swords, while sabre or more descriptive variations refer to curved blade swords. The name game is the bane of our understanding of terms for arms, and often commonly used terms are confounding when trying to establish logic or reason. I think if anyone, at the risk of their sanity, took on the daunting task of cataloguing and trying to explain the spectrum of terms and words describing edged weapons in their various contexts, it would be astounding . Naturally they would have to navigate through the maelstrom of transliterations, colloquial slang and nicknames and most confounding of all, the web of 'collectors terms'.