Attribution of Indian (?) handle: Hyderabad?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

The remarkable weapon at #1 reveals I believe the sword hilt adopted on Omani Shamshiir swords. Ariel is quite correct that Baluchi peoples have been in the Oman Zanj regions for a long time.. Saiid the Great employed Baluchi mercenaries to remove the Portuguese from Fort Jesus in the early 1800s... They have been in these regions ever since and in Oman largely on the Baatina Coast . The Omani habit of recruiting Baluch soldiers into its Armed Forces is a tradition going bck to the time Oman owned Gwadur and that part of what is now Baluchistan (under the Pakistani Flag) which was sold back to Pakistan in about 1950. Oman still recruits there.
The Omani Shamshiir probably made in Hyderabad has a hilt similar to the project weapon thus I believe that is the link to this extraordinary sword ...particularly the silver wired knot. Shown below; The Omani Shamshiir
See http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...mani+shamshiir

[estcrh]

Jam of Las Bela and suite, Durbar Delhi 1903, Jam of Las bela was the princely title of Las Bela State in Balochistan.

Take a look at the sword hilts.

[ariel]

Beautiful!
Thanks Eric and Ibrahiim!

The Ibrahiim's example shows a traditional Persian shamshir handle with Arabian decorative motives ( wire in particular).
But Eric's photo is astonishing: at least two handles that are spot on, and with impeccable attribution to Balochistan/Sindh.

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by estcrh

Jam of Las Bela and suite, Durbar Delhi 1903, Jam of Las bela was the princely title of Las Bela State in Balochistan.

Take a look at the sword hilts.

You are an amazing guy!
How do you find all these archives?
Now as Ariel, I agree that there is no reason to doubt of the origin of these swords.

[Jim McDougall]

I agree, Eric is clearly one of the most remarkable archivists, and seems to consistently come up with irrefutable illustrative examples to bring discussions to terms.

This is a great discussion on these interesting shamshirs, and I would not doubt in the least any attributions by Oliver or Ward. There is little substitute for the many years of countless examples and in depth study.

I would point out that even that being the case, one always seeks further corroboration and support for even apparently firmly set attributions. The reason for this is partly to explain the inevitable variants which will arise as well as being able to present the most comprehensively cited support in further study.

Naturally one has opinions, but a diligent and responsible researcher never stands on that alone, and does not stop seeking other published or researched material. Obviously those sources are also other opinions of those who have researched often similar material and examples, and can often provide remarkable perspective. Often this comes from examples or cases one or the other may not have had access to. In other cases it may be subsequent research and evidence not at hand when extant material was published.
This is well shown in the comments and notes from Ibrahiim, who has had extensive field experience in the field and with the ethnic groups being discussed as pertains to these sword forms.

Clearly the true and serious study of the history and development of arms forms is always a work in progress, and to ever seek further corroboration of evidence and to share opinions in a comparative manner in discussion is not only prudent, but powerfully constructive.

Thanks very much guys!!!

[ariel]

OK, to summarize:

- We have historical evidence of Yemeni and ( especially) Omani Arabs living in Baluchistan and Baluchis living in Oman . Such exchange of population is a fertile ground for cultural and decorative exchange.

- We have Lotfy's testimonial that similar handles are seen in Oman even now, exclusively among the Baluch

- We have an old post here showing an identical handle on a shamshir, with excellent provenance to Baluchistan and Hyderabad

- We have a photograph of Baluchis carrying swords with identical handle

- We have unquestionable South Arabian decorative motives on the handles presented here.


What we are still missing, is the Indian example of a handle that could have served as a basis for the Arab silversmiths to apply their traditional decorations.


I would like to suggest, that the following purely Indian/Indo-Persian handles with a camel head with dulla might have fulfilled this function.
Pic is taken from the Robert Hales' book, p.229 ( ##561,562)

[Jim McDougall]

Good suggestion.....Baluchistan/Sind areas desert.
Possibly stylization .
Always thought Kabyle flyssa extreme stylization of camel too.

Looked in Pant?
There is a shamshir hilt with roundels similar to Hyderabad type sa'ifs.

[ariel]

Had enough time for Hales only. Pant is next:-)

The pommel has similar geometry: bent at 90 degrees, and then curves down.
Very idiosyncratic.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by ariel

What we are still missing, is the Indian example of a handle that could have served as a basis for the Arab silversmiths to apply their traditional decorations.

There was a lot of trade between Indian and Arabic countries, There are Indians pictured with Arab style swords that appear to be Indian made, while you can not see the blade the scabbard on this sword does not look especially Arabic to me.


The Nawab of Loharu. Durbar Delhi 1903.

[ariel]

OK, here is an example from Pant. Pommel's terminal is not bent, but still has a very specific ring through it.
Attributed as Mughal, 17 century.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

I agree, Eric is clearly one of the most remarkable archivists, and seems to consistently come up with irrefutable illustrative examples to bring discussions to terms.

Thanks Jim but I am constantly in awe of the huge amount of information people here bring to discussions (including you) on such a wide range of topics. I am always learning something new.

[ariel]

I think this short and quick exchange was a wonderful example of a co-operation leading to the solution of an admittedly small but interesting riddle.

Eric's contribution of an obscure photograph was a crucial argument and we all owe him an applause and a debt of gratitude.

From now on we all know the origin of these peculiar handles. We have learned something new and this is the whole purpose of the existence of this Forum.

Kudos to all!

[BANDOOK]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

The remarkable weapon at #1 reveals I believe the sword hilt adopted on Omani Shamshiir swords. Ariel is quite correct that Baluchi peoples have been in the Oman Zanj regions for a long time.. Saiid the Great employed Baluchi mercenaries to remove the Portuguese from Fort Jesus in the early 1800s... They have been in these regions ever since and in Oman largely on the Baatina Coast . The Omani habit of recruiting Baluch soldiers into its Armed Forces is a tradition going bck to the time Oman owned Gwadur and that part of what is now Baluchistan (under the Pakistani Flag) which was sold back to Pakistan in about 1950. Oman still recruits there.
The Omani Shamshiir probably made in Hyderabad has a hilt similar to the project weapon thus I believe that is the link to this extraordinary sword ...particularly the silver wired knot. Shown below; The Omani Shamshiir
See http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...mani+shamshiir

Saalam Ibrahiim,just wanted to point out which you also are aware when Pakistan separated to be a independent Country from India,Baluchistan was a Separate province during the British India Empire ,but the Pakistan Army Illegally Occupied Baluchistan in 1948 ,The Baluchis are Fighting for Independence till Date,so lots of weapons in Baluchistan has Influence from the Indian Subcontinent as well as Arabia,Regards

[BANDOOK]

Area of dispute

Historical Balochistan covers the southern part off Sistan o Baluchestan Province, Iran, in the west, the Pakistani province of Balochistan in the east, and, in the northwest, Afghanistan's Helmand Province. The Gulf of Oman forms its southern border. Mountains and desert make up much of the region's terrain. Most Balochis live in part that falls within Pakistan's borders.

Geographically, Balochistan Province is the largest region of Pakistan, comprising 44% of the country's total area), but it is the least inhabited, with only 5% of total population, and the least developed.[43] Sunni Islam is the predominant religion.[44]

Stuart Notholt, in his Atlas of Ethnic Conflict, describes the unrest in Balochistan as a "nationalist/self-determination conflict".[45]

History

Background

The Baloch naitonalist struggle is centred on the Khanate of Kalat, established in 1666 by Mir Ahmad. Under Mir Naseer Khan I in 1758, who accepted the Afghan paramountcy, the boundaries of Kalat stretched up to Dera Ghazi Khan in the east and Bandar Abbas in the west. However, in November 1839, the British invaded Kalat and killed the Khan and his followers. Afterwards, the British influence in the region gradually grew. In 1869, the British Political Agent Robert Sandeman ended up mediating a dispute between the Khan of Kalat and the Sardars of Balochistan, and established the British primacy in the region. The tribal areas of Marri, Bugti, Khetran and Chaghi were brought under the direct administration of a British Agent, eventually to become the Chief Commissioner's Province of Balochistan. Lasbela and Kharan were declared Special Areas with a different political system. The remaining areas of Sarawan, Jhalawan, Kacchi and Makran were retained as the Khanate of Kalat, supervised by a Political Agent of Kalat.[46]

In the 20th century, the educated Baloch middle class harboured hopes of an independent Balochistan free of the British. They formed a nationalist movement Anjuman-e-Ittehad-e-Balochistan in 1931. One of their first campaigns was to fight for the accession of Azam Jan as the Khan of Kalat and a constitutional government to be established under him. They were successful in establishing Azam Jan as the Khan but the new Khan sided with the Sardars and turned his back on the Anjuman. His successor Mir Ahmad Yar Khan was more sympathetic to Anjuman but he was averse to upsetting his relations with the British. The Anujman, transformed into the Kalat State National Party (KSNP), continued to fight for independence from the British. It was declared illegal by the Khanate in 1939 and its active leaders and activists were exiled. This paved the way for the formation of new political parties, Balochistan Muslim League allied to the Muslim League in June 1939 and Anjuman-i-Watan allied to the Indian National Congress in the same year.[47]

Mir Ahmad Yar Khan provided generous funding to the Muslim League, both at the local and All-India levels, and acquired the services of Muhammad Ali Jinnah as the Legal Adviser to the Kalat state. With Jinnah's advocacy, it was agreed on 4 August 1947 that the 'Kalat State will be independent on 5 August 1947, enjoying the same status as it originally held in 1838, having friendly relations with its neighbours'. On the same day, an agreement was also signed with Dominion of Pakistan. According to the Article I, 'The Government of Pakistan agrees that Kalat is an independent State, being quite different in status from other States of India'. However, the Article IV stated:


a standstill agreement will be made between Pakistan and Kalat by which Pakistan shall stand committed to all the responsibilities agreements signed by Kalat and the British Government from 1839 to 1947 and by this, Pakistan shall be the legal, constitutional and political successor of the British.[48]

Through this agreement, the British Paramountcy was effectively transferred to Pakistan. The Khan of Kalat achieved a pyrrhic victory by becoming 'independent' on 15 August 1947.[49]

First conflict

Balochistan was divided between four princely states under the British Raj. Three of these, Makran, Las Bela and Kharan joined with Pakistan in 1947 after independence.[50] The Khan of Kalat, Ahmad Yar Khan, declared Kalat's independence as this was one of the options given to all of the 535 princely states by British Prime Minister Clement Attlee.[51]

Muhammad Ali Jinnah pressured Yar Khan to accept Pakistani rule but the Khan stalled for time. Out of patience, on 27 March 1948, Pakistan formally annexed Kalat.[52] In April, the military invaded, conquering the territory in a month.[53] Yar Khan signed a treaty of accession, submitting to the federal government. His younger brothers, Princes Agha Abdul Karim Baloch and Muhammad Rahim, refused to lay down arms, leading the Dosht-e Jhalawan in unconventional attacks on the army until 1950.[54] Jinnah and his successors allowed Yar Khan to retain his title until the province's dissolution in 1955.

Second conflict

Nawab Nauroz Khan took up arms in resistance to the One Unit policy, which decreased government representation for tribal leaders, from 1958 to 1959. He and his followers started a guerrilla war against Pakistan, and were arrested, charged with treason, and imprisoned in Hyderabad. Five of his family members, sons and nephews, were subsequently hanged on charges of treason and aiding in the murder of Pakistani troops. Nawab Nauroz Khan later died in captivity.[55]

Third conflict

After the second conflict, a Baloch separatist movement gained momentum in the 1960s, following the introduction of a new constitution in 1956 which limited provincial autonomy and enacted the 'One Unit' concept of political organisation in Pakistan. Tension continued to grow amid consistent political disorder and instability at the federal level. The federal government tasked the Pakistan Army with building several new bases in key areas of Balochistan. Sher Muhammad Bijrani Marri led like-minded militants into guerrilla warfare from 1963 to 1969 by creating their own insurgent bases, spread out over 45,000 miles (72,000 km) of land, from the Mengal tribal area in the south to the Marri and Bugti tribal areas in the north. Their goal was to force Pakistan to share revenue generated from the Sui gas fields with the tribal leaders. The insurgents bombed railway tracks and ambushed convoys. The Army retaliated by destroying vast areas of the Marri tribe's land. This insurgency ended in 1969, with the Baloch separatists agreeing to a ceasefire. In 1970 Pakistani President Yahya Khan abolished the "One Unit" policy,[56] which led to the recognition of Balochistan as the fourth province of West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan), including all the Balochistani princely states, the High Commissioners Province, and Gwadar, an 800 km2 coastal area purchased from Oman by the Pakistani government.

Fourth conflict 1973–77

For more details on this topic, see Baloch Insurgency and Rahimuddin's Stabilization.

The unrest continued into the 1970s, culminating in a government-ordered military operation in the region in 1973.

In 1973, citing treason, President Bhutto dismissed the provincial governments of Balochistan and NWFP and imposed martial law in those areas,[57] which led to armed insurgency. Khair Bakhsh Marri formed the Balochistan People's Liberation Front (BPLF), which led large numbers of Marri and Mengal tribesmen into guerrilla warfare against the central government.[58] According to some authors, the Pakistani military lost 300 to 400 soldiers during the conflict with the Balochi separatists, while between 7,300 and 9,000 Balochi militants and civilians were killed.[17]

Assisted by Iran, Pakistani forces inflicted heavy casualties on the separatists. The insurgency fell into decline after a return to the four-province structure and the abolishment of the Sardari system.

Fifth conflict 2004–to date

See also: Sistan and Baluchestan insurgency

In 2004 an insurgent attack on Gwadar port resulting in the deaths of three Chinese engineers and four wounded drew China into the conflict.[20] In 2005, the Baluch political leaders Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti and Mir Balach Marri presented a 15-point agenda to the Pakistan government. Their stated demands included greater control of the province's resources and a moratorium on the construction of military bases.[59] On 15 December 2005 the inspector general of the Frontier Corps, Major General Shujaat Zamir Dar, and his deputy Brigadier Salim Nawaz (the current IGFC) were wounded after shots were fired at their helicopter in Balochistan Province. The provincial interior secretary later said that, after visiting Kohlu, "both of them were wounded in the leg but both are in stable condition."[60]

In August 2006, Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti, 79 years old, was killed in fighting with the Pakistan Army, in which at least 60 Pakistani soldiers and 7 officers were also killed. Pakistan's government had charged him with responsibility of a series of deadly bomb blasts and a rocket attack on President Pervez Musharraf.[61]

In April 2009, Baloch National Movement president Ghulam Mohammed Baloch and two other nationalist leaders (Lala Munir and Sher Muhammad) were seized from a small legal office and were allegedly "handcuffed, blindfolded and hustled into a waiting pickup truck which is in still [sic] use of intelligence forces in front of their lawyer and neighboring shopkeepers." The gunmen were allegedly speaking in Persian (a national language of neighbouring Afghanistan and Iran). Five days later, on 8 April, their bullet-riddled bodies were found in a commercial area. The BLA claimed Pakistani forces were behind the killings, though international experts have deemed it odd that the Pakistani forces would be careless enough to allow the bodies to be found so easily and "light Balochistan on fire" (Herald) if they were truly responsible.[62] The discovery of the bodies sparked rioting and weeks of strikes, demonstrations, and civil resistance in cities and towns around Balochistan.[63] See Turbat killings

On 12 August 2009, Khan of Kalat Mir Suleiman Dawood declared himself ruler of Balochistan and formally announced a Council for Independent Balochistan. The council's claimed domain includes Sistan and Baluchestan Province, as well as Pakistani Balochistan, but does not include Afghan Baloch regions. The council claimed the allegiance of "all separatist leaders including Nawabzada Bramdagh Bugti." Suleiman Dawood stated that the UK had a "moral responsibility to raise the issue of Balochistan's illegal occupation at international level."[64]

The Economist writes:


"[The Baloch separatists] are supported—with money, influence or sympathy—by some members of the powerful Bugti tribe and by parts of the Baloch middle class. This makes today's insurgency stronger than previous ones, but the separatists will nevertheless struggle to prevail over Pakistan's huge army."[36]

— The Economist, April 2012

US-based exiled Baloch journalist and newspaper editor Malik Siraj Akbar writes that the ongoing Baloch resistance has created "serious challenges" for the Pakistan government, "unlike the past resistance movements", because it has lasted longer than previous insurgencies, has greater breadth—including the entire province "from rural mountainous regions to the city centers", involves Baloch women and children at "regular protest rallies", and has drawn more international attention—including a 2012 hearing by the US Congress. Islamabad has accused its neighbour India of supporting the insurgency in Balochistan.[27] However infighting between insurgent groups as of late 2014 has weakened the movement.[27]

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams Bandook, Thank you for the excellent reminder of the historical situation outlined. It is important, although, it is steeped in modern history and politics thus I cannot otherwise comment. Someone said that after the world was completed the bits that were left over were sewn together as "Baluchistan"... That has changed little...Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi.