Kattara for comments

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by A.alnakkas

Well hey Omani's turned out to like european blades eventually?:P

I like them, dont think they are european made personally but am no expert in the field. I think Omani's, like most Arabs, they have valued foreign blades and have imported + copied them. The pictures you add support that more then anything.

Salaams A.alnakkas Ah well there you have it.

With the help of the Forum we have torn apart the myth on straight flexible Omani Sayf and rightly placed the Old Omani Battle Sayf into a corrected timeframe. The latter weapon regarded by many(with no proof) as variably 10th, 12th, 16th century with varying degrees of guess and error mixed. Some thought it Portuguese which would have placed it in the circa 1500 age bracket. No one had even heard of "The Funoon" . Ibn Jalanda... whos that? The Abbasids? Greek influence? Examples in the Topkapi Museum? Weapon freeze? Gradually the lid has been blown off...off that and the details about the straight flexible dancing sword "The Omani Sayf"... which has no European source whatsoever mainly because it isn't technically a fighting sword but a Religio-National Icon.

Oman did indeed also favour tasty curved swords and the Persian Shamshir, The Zanzibari Nimcha and the Karabela spring to mind where they are termed Kattara (though no one knows why?) in Oman.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.