The Habaabi Khanjar/Jambia; FromThe Asir.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

For the benefit of "newbies" to this Forum, and to avoid further confusion, it should I think be noted here that the term "Habaabi" is used by Omanis to describe non Omani daggers. It is NOT a term, used for a specific style of jambiya.
This statement was made by Ibrahiim elsewhere in his posts.

Salaams All, let me quote to you what I was told by a Yemeni just the other day...

Quote"These daggers are also called Habaabi in Yemen because as you can see when you strip the word down it becomes obvious that it means of Abha... or Abha region''. Unquote. (Abha being the capital of that region.)
I have to say I am not at all convinced but the chap may be right...he is a weapons sword and dagger dealer... It is such a closed region historically that very little detail is available. Should more evidence come about on the subject of terminology I will report it.

The pronunciation is interesting since it should actually be heard as Abhaabi but that is extremely difficult to say requiring a fully aspirated AH ...Habaabi is simply an easier pronunciation.

However khanjar 1 what is much more important to researchers is the essence of this weapon and how it developed and its obvious linkage to Omani daggers. http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14878

For the uninitiated the trade link by sea between Oman(Muscat) the Asir(Jazan)...and Zanzibar in the mid 19th C is KEY. At the mid point in the 19th C Oman embarked on huge development in Zanzibar at the very same time that the Royal Omani Khanjar was designed by the Rulers wife.


Wikipedia is not a bad place to start looking for Asir...and where the difficulties are outlined as ~

Quote" By 1920, however, 'Abd al-'Aziz, founder of Saudi Arabia, had begun to recoup the losses of the House of Sa'ud and to unify most of the Peninsula under his rule. As part of this campaign, he sent his young son Faisal - later king - with an expeditionary force to occupy 'Asir, and from then on 'Asir was controlled by the House of Sa'ud - a situation formalized in 1934 with the signing of the Treaty of Taif between Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

Even then the region was still largely unknown to the West. In 1932, H. St. John Philby, one of the first Europeans to explore and map the Peninsula, did enter 'Asir, but as he didn't publish his observations until 1952, the area remained one of the blank spots on the world's map." Unquote.

The main port is Jazan also noted well in Wikepedia and a key centre well placed over the centuries for regional trade..

The weapon is peculiar and has confounded experts and specialists down the ages...The prestigious www.omanisilver.com even has a handful of such daggers wrongly written up as Omani..such is its similarity to The Royal Omani Khanjar...invented or redesigned from the Muscat Dagger by Sheherazad in about 1840/50 with some flair added from Indian design in the Hilt. I stress that it was the hilt which she was responsible for..See The Omani Khanjar for further details.



Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[blue lander]

Oriental Arms has a couple of these that they categorize as Omani as well.

It seems all of these Habaabi khanjars are larger than mine. The "toe" of the scabbard is also pointing slightly upwards on these whereas mine's almost horizontal. They all also have the small "shield" thing on the bottom ring and mine doesn't, although it could have fallen off.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by blue lander

Oriental Arms has a couple of these that they categorize as Omani as well.

It seems all of these Habaabi khanjars are larger than mine. The "toe" of the scabbard is also pointing slightly upwards on these whereas mine's almost horizontal. They all also have the small "shield" thing on the bottom ring and mine doesn't, although it could have fallen off.

Salaams blue lander, Yes a lot of people get these twisted up because they are so similar...Not all daggers are the same size and in this respect Habaabi can be quite small in some cases... and quite narrow in the body...compared with others. The small shield over the base ring is sometimes not present. Some variation also exists in the angle of tilt...I checked the website of Oriental Arms... Yes you are spot on and the offending weapon I looked at even has the flower insignia on the reverse...as well as the UUUUUUU design on the front and another give way is the floral decor on the crown(toe)...well spotted Sir !!
It may well be that they looked at Omanisilver dot com and took their cue from there...and their rendition being wrong perpetrated the error!

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[kahnjar1]

There seems to be some confusion creeping in here.
In this thread http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18700 you are saying that the UUUUUU is an indicator of being from Al Ahsa. Now you are saying that it is from Asir. The two regions are many miles part, and indeed are on opposite sides of Saudi Arabia!
I have no doubt that there are similarities between the two, but perhaps you could, for the benefit of those us who are still learning, explain how you have arrived at this conclusion.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

There seems to be some confusion creeping in here.
In this thread http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18700 you are saying that the UUUUUU is an indicator of being from Al Ahsa. Now you are saying that it is from Asir. The two regions are many miles part, and indeed are on opposite sides of Saudi Arabia!
I have no doubt that there are similarities between the two, but perhaps you could, for the benefit of those us who are still learning, explain how you have arrived at this conclusion.

Good point ...I think my #18 of that reference indicates Asir... Abha... since the flower tribe weapons all have it. I am not so sure about the al Ahsa oasis. Frankly they are hugely difficult regions to penetrate...and what we have is by sheer hard plugging at it...

It occurs to me that the Flower tribe weapon is copied from the Royal Omani Khanjar whilst the Al Ahsa is copied from the Muscat Khanjar...which as you know led me quite a dance as the cornerstone Omani reference was entirely wrong in that regard... and the other reference so prestigious in all other respects was Omanisilver dot com is very badly wrong....and there are apparently other references which are incorrect.

Abha identity marks.
As well as the UUUUUUU (Which occasionally looks like OOOOOOO)The other marker decoration on the Abha is a floral decoration to the Quba and the flower motif on the reverse as well as an arabic inscription(maker/owner) either on the backplate above the belt or on the back of the Quba...(crown)There are many that appear to have criss coss wiring below the belt, however, to me the big give away is the highly angled scabbard turn.

I dont think enough examples exist from the al Ahsa Oasis quite yet to draw conclusions though I did stumble in and give it a shot...The major differences appear to be hilt related;more examples please...

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[kahnjar1]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Good point ...I think my #18 of that reference indicates Asir... Abha... since the flower tribe weapons all have it. I am not so sure about the al Ahsa oasis. Frankly they are hugely difficult regions to penetrate...and what we have is by sheer hard plugging at it...

It occurs to me that the Flower tribe weapon is copied from the Royal Omani Khanjar whilst the Al Ahsa is copied from the Muscat Khanjar...which as you know led me quite a dance as the cornerstone Omani reference was entirely wrong in that regard... and the other reference so prestigious in all other respects was Omanisilver dot com is very badly wrong....and there are apparently other references which are incorrect.

Abha identity marks.
As well as the UUUUUUU (Which occasionally looks like OOOOOOO)The other marker decoration on the Abha is a floral decoration to the Quba and the flower motif on the reverse as well as an arabic inscription(maker/owner) either on the backplate above the belt or on the back of the Quba...(crown)There are many that appear to have criss coss wiring below the belt, however, to me the big give away is the highly angled scabbard turn.

I dont think enough examples exist from the al Ahsa Oasis quite yet to draw conclusions though I did stumble in and give it a shot...The major differences appear to be hilt related;more examples please...

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

I think we need to express some caution here as Oman is NOT NECESSARILY the origin of all other Jambiya/Khanjar shapes or designs. The Yemeni and other Western Arabian areas spawned their own definitive designs and these can be seen described in several modern publications on the subject. These designs also have their own descriptive names depending on the areas of origin. Although the general shape is similar, it can not be IMHO, be firmly attributed to derive from Omani Khanjar types.
As a further matter of interest, the term "Habaabi" does not appear in any of these publications.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

I think we need to express some caution here as Oman is NOT NECESSARILY the origin of all other Jambiya/Khanjar shapes or designs. The Yemeni and other Western Arabian areas spawned their own definitive designs and these can be seen described in several modern publications on the subject. These designs also have their own descriptive names depending on the areas of origin. Although the general shape is similar, it can not be IMHO, be firmly attributed to derive from Omani Khanjar types.
As a further matter of interest, the term "Habaabi" does not appear in any of these publications.

Salaams Khanjar 1... Colloquial knicknames and regional folk lore often don't appear in official documentation especially in the case of a region that has been taken over by another state. Habaabi means of Abha... It is the traditional and local name also used in Oman for these weapons from the Abha region...Other traditional local nameology that isnt in the official list such as the one two and three grooved swords abu Falaj etc and local names for boiling honey...arabic is full of these lovely descriptive phrases....Several local names come in to play for the old guns and there is one called The One with the hump...A Martini Henry with a raised rear breach section.

The spread of the Omani Khanjar style ... Surely you are not suggesting that the regional variants from Asir and Al Hasa came from another region...and against all the trade link details I have outlined and the obvious style? A style so like the Omani Khanjar that the Prestigious author of Omani Silver and the extremely well versed people at Omani Silver dot com and others were hoodwinked??

Prove it.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.