Omani Khanjar (?) for discussion

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Richard W

hello again. I have this piece my dad bought in London in the early 1980's. It has the belt attached. The belt is woven with fine silver wire. My interest is in the blade: It has the appearance of being scratched out of a piece of metal to make the fuller. The edge is actually pretty sharp. Has anyone seen this type of blade manufacture? Is this a desirable unique feature? or the opposite? Looks incredibly time consuming to produce. Handle is horn. Mo maker's marks visible.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

Salaams Richard W, They often made blades from two pieces of metal...and a lot of blades were imported. The belts in Oman are two distinct types and one is like yours essentially a woven cloth belt (some have silver wire woven in as well) and a leather belt heavily adorned with silver stitching.

See The Omani Khanjar at Forum Library on http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...=omani+khanjar

The thread is quite large and shows most variations on the Khanjar theme as well as accoutrements belts etc...and has many references with which to research further.

I consider your Khanjar to be generally of the Baatina variety with a lot of stitching below the belt section...typical of that region on the vast coastal belt from Muscat North . There is nothing of note in the scratched blade... Its just scratched ... Often people would change the blade for a better one... or switch to a better hilt... such is the nature of owning an Omani Khanjar...

Only very rarely did makers in Oman sign blades unlike in the Yemen where Jambia were quite often signed.

As for workshop time usually about 3 to 4 days is long enough although some master works will take considerably longer. Often different parts are outsourced like the hilt, scabbard, belt... and all brought together at once cutting the work time considerably by using several workshops.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.