The Omani Khanjar

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams all; Note to Forum.

I have described in some detail the living ethnographics of Oman seen through the eyes of The Omani Khanjar and Omani swords. To the untrained eye these may appear as copies. Essentially they are, however, they need to be viewed as hand made copies of an exact style demanded by the particular tribe or expected of a specific regional design.

To that end no additional designs are permitted. You cannot , for example, tell a silversmith to design a khanjar(or a piece of traditional Omani jewellery) with your own idea of what it could look like i.e. It must conform to the laid down pattern (or one of them) of that region from its history.

Therefor when producing a new Khanjar for say a UAE KHANJAR OF THE RULING FAMILY (see # 14) we look at originals in museums and take photographs and do research to determine what we can and cannot do. There may be a specific hilt or a choice of hilts and we may have some say in the quality of blade, however, in general and over all, the khanjar must be a faithful copy of the original style..absolutely. By original I mean of a Khanjar which is the oldest available ~ often going back about 100 years.

The same applies for daggers etc from other regions;

There is no such thing as a dagger or a sword or a piece of Islamic jewellery which is not a faithful copy of a previous item.

The character and appearance of a specific family dagger which may have begun life more or less identical to another from the same family does, however, change through the years not just by being added to (with the half dozen or so accoutrements and any one of scores of different belts) or by the slight variance in the patina but by allowable changes in blade and hilt and by repairs.

So for the serious student of Omani Khanjars and other regional ethnographics it is vital to hoist in the basic lesson; The Copy.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[spiral]

Namaste Ibrahiim!

I must admit that just by eye I can often see the quality of workmanship & use of tools in manufacture in many items,both new & old.

It occurs with copy weapons in India & Nepal as well.

The old adage, "OFTEN COPIED BUT NEVER DUPLICATED" springs to mind.

Spiral

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by spiral

Namaste Ibrahiim!

I must admit that just by eye I can often see the quality of workmanship & use of tools in manufacture in many items,both new & old.

It occurs with copy weapons in India & Nepal as well.

The old adage, "OFTEN COPIED BUT NEVER DUPLICATED" springs to mind.

Spiral

Salaams Spiral ~ I was trying to think how to say copied by hand are always individual ... but you beat me to it with that excellent saying!! Shukran. Its a bit like making Rolls Royces !
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

[eric45]

very nice.

[NovelsRus]

Salaams, Ibrahiim,

You advised, "I think it looks great exactly where it is."

I couldn't agree more! Although I'd still like to see it up high on my wall, I think the potential hazards outweigh the aesthetics.

Also, on that Baatista design, why are there only four rings, not seven? Is it only the Royal Omani Khanjar that gets 7 rings?

Thanks again, and sorry for the quality of my last photos. It was night, and I was in a hurry to snap the photos and send 'em on before I fell asleep at the wheel, so to speak.

Sincere best wishes,

JRF
P.S. I still think the Royal Omani Khanjar is the most beautiful dress dagger in all Arabia. Of course, I may be somewhat biased.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by NovelsRus

Salaams, Ibrahiim,

You advised, "I think it looks great exactly where it is."

I couldn't agree more! Although I'd still like to see it up high on my wall, I think the potential hazards outweigh the aesthetics.

Also, on that Baatista design, why are there only four rings, not seven? Is it only the Royal Omani Khanjar that gets 7 rings?

Thanks again, and sorry for the quality of my last photos. It was night, and I was in a hurry to snap the photos and send 'em on before I fell asleep at the wheel, so to speak.

Sincere best wishes,

JRF
P.S. I still think the Royal Omani Khanjar is the most beautiful dress dagger in all Arabia. Of course, I may be somewhat biased.

Salaams NovelsRus, Baatina(Coastal Oman) technically from Muscat north and north west up the coast as far as Mussandam; here and in other Omani regions they sport the 4 ringer Khanjar. In Muscat there is a 7 ringer with an ordinary Tee shaped hilt and in addition to this there is the Royal Khanjar 7 ringer with the fancy hilt. Occasionally Muscat Khanjars appear with 8 rings(just to confuse the issue) and all I can say about rings is that without them the whole structure would fall apart... They are very much what holds the whole ensemble together forming the belt section. I agree that the Royal Khanjar is a superb looking weapon. Thanks for the post...

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams All; Note to Forum.

For something a little different I include here a Khanjar of UAE style (a photo of a photo)and said to have been sold 23 years ago on the passing of the owner. Now one of the sons wishes to have a Khanjar of equal style and quality copied from the original seen here. It is said to have been constructed in Dubai in the old souk (now gone).

The peculiar part is that the cuff of the dagger and throat of the scabbard and the crown are matching "neilo style" something rarely seen in Khanjars. The hilt is Rhino with silver pins, gold buttons, central gold ferule and there is extensive goldwork in the scabbard. I have no shot of the blade(I only had one photo to work with) but suspect a fine quality item.
All I have to do now is build one identical to this!

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.