Period Photos of People with Ethnographic Arms

[kronckew]

Does look photoshopped. The guy on the right doesn't seem too happy about it either. Interesting swords, rather large...


Cool photo tho. 👍

[Ren Ren]

In Vietnamese they are called trường gươm 長劔, which means "long sword" or "long saber". By the time photography appeared, it was already an exclusively ceremonial weapon. In temples and shrines, it was often kept in the form of wooden models covered with multi-colored varnish.
Oval wicker shields are even more interesting and rare in my opinion.

[dat_man]

Few photos where you can see omani zanzibari nimcha

[TVV]

Thank you for these images dat_man. The big photo on the bottom is especially intriguing. It depicts a man of high status with a nice shamshir seated on a fancy chair/throne. The people on his sides have nimcha hilted swords, and the two closest ones appear to have the ivory and gold hilt variety. It is similar to a photo in Hales showing a Comoros vizier with a shamshir and his bodyguards with nimchas. Pradines has a theory that the shamshir in East Africa was a status symbol, reserved only for very high ranking people.

The second row of standing men gets more eclectic when it comes to sidearms with a long saif, a crude shamshir hilted sword and a Western style sabre.

[SanibelSwassa]

Just few additional examples from the archives of Moro peoples with their traditional weapons. Enjoy!

[Martin Lubojacky]

Photo by Alexandre Marchand (from the book "African Train"),
around Dire Dawa (Ethiopia) 1911 – 1913

[kino]

Kampilan bearer of Dato Mastura, Cotabato. Peabody Museum.

[ausjulius]

Originally Posted by DaveA

Dha Myaung sword, Burma
Source: http://bit.ly/HzDqpd

not burma.. its taiwanese aborigines..

[Norman McCormick]

Mongolian Archers first half 20thC.

[Rich]

Neat. Bet those guys could shot the eye out a bug from 70 yards.
Curious, what's the sword the guy on the right in the first pic is carrying?

[cyten]

Men from Trabzon armed with Yataghans, ball butt flintlock pistols, Shishane with strange shoulder holsters, and Russian Berdan No.1

[cyten]

Shishane, Boyliya, Caucasian Blades

[gp]

Lavian Riflemen, AKA "strelniki"

Part of the Russian Imperial Army, in WW I about 30.000 men around 1917
Some later joined the Bolshevik revolution and hence its army
The majority remained in Latvia to protect the country due to an internal strugle and instability,
caused by 3 governments fighting for control ( German, Sovjet and Latvian) untill Latvia's independance 1920/22

[mahratt]

Hunters from kishlak (village) of Pai-Mazar. Central Asia. Tajikistan (Tajik SSR). 1932. (Hunters have old matchlock guns).

[SidJ]

Warlpiri family, Australia, 1920s. I love this image. The physique of that warrior is impressive.

[cyten]

Albanian with Turkish Shishane

[gp]

Bosnian gent around 1890-1900

[gp]

a few more postcards dated 1910-1920

[gp]

another Bosnian man and a print from a monthly paper showing the Bosnisch-Herzegowinsche Infanterie Regiment marching in a Bosnian town ( either Mostar or Sarajevo)

[mahratt]

Officers Turkmen (Tekin) cavalry regiment (subdivision army Russian Empire) with traditional Turkmen weapons: shamshirs and kards

[gp]

Originally Posted by mahratt

Officers Turkmen (Tekin) cavalry regiment (subdivision army Russian Empire) with traditional Turkmen weapons: shamshirs and kards

this kard looks beautiful to me , more than interesting ;
what kind of kard would it be? from which country / origin ?

[mahratt]

Originally Posted by gp

this kard looks beautiful to me , more than interesting ;
what kind of kard would it be? from which country / origin ?

This is a Turkmen Kard knife from Central Asia. Turkmen tribes lived in the 19th - early 20th centuries on the territory and on the border of the Khiva Khanate.

[gp]

Thank you very much for adding the picture ; these look amazing !☼

Hope to own one of these someday .....

would these kards perhaps be the same as the one by Islam Khodja or would his be another / different one ?

[gp]

Aga aus Sarajevo im Waffenschmuck:
as displayed in the Landesmuseum, Sarajevo, circa 1899.
Source: Historical Archive of Sarajevo, Photograph Archive, Inv. No. 1276

Dignitaries in Sarajevo, circa 1898. Note the weapons inserted in the sash
of the standing nobelman (back row, on the right).
Source: Historical Archive of Sarajevo, Photograph Archive, Inv. No. 1329.

[gp]

some more Caucassian pics

[Tatyana Dianova]

The first picture is not from Caucasus, but from Ukraine.
It is signed:
"Yuhym Bozhko, Otaman of the second infantry division of the Zaporozhian Sich, Year 1919"
Otaman is a military commander of the Ukrainian Cossacks.
An interesting photo.

[Ren Ren]

This photo is especially interesting given the fact that the Zaporozhian Sich was liquidated in 1775.

[Will M]

Originally Posted by gp

Lavian Riflemen, AKA "strelniki"

Part of the Russian Imperial Army, in WW I about 30.000 men around 1917
Some later joined the Bolshevik revolution and hence its army
The majority remained in Latvia to protect the country due to an internal strugle and instability,
caused by 3 governments fighting for control ( German, Sovjet and Latvian) untill Latvia's independance 1920/22

That's a wonderful photo of Russian troops with the Winchester 1895 pattern musket in 7.62x54.

[gp]

Thank you both for the additional info. So 1775, perhaps he might have been also an inspiration for the character of Taras Bulba (like for instance Okhrim Makukha)

[gp]

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