Origins of karabela

ariel · 13th December 2012, 07:02 PM

I put a note in another thread to this effect, but perhaps we need to have a separate thread, to question the common misconseption.

There is a widespread belief that Karabela ( handle , of course) is of Iranian origin and stems from Karbala.
This is based mainly on Khorasani's assertion and his fancy idea that the shape of the handle follows the outline of the windows in the Karbala shrine, but..! .....only if we divide the window in half:-)

Many fancy derivations were invented for the word karabela ( including italian cara bella, dear beauty:-)), but the most obvious one, i.e. the Turkish locality call Karabel, was relegated to the back of the line.

There is, however, a simple fact of the distribution of such handles. It is a truism that any invention of a particular culture/tradition would be most popular in the country of origin and will spread to the surrounding, influenced, societies.
First, there are very few karabelas in Iran. Second, there are virtually no karabelas in the Iran-influenced countries: India, Afghanistan, Central Asian Khanates . In contrast, there are many of them in Turkey proper and , most importantly, everywhere the Ottomans went: Eastern Europe, Balkans, Hungary, Austria, North Africa ( their yataghan handles) and Aravia proper ( Yemeni examples). The argument of Polish admiration for all things Persian does not hold water: neither Croats, nor North African, Hungarians or Styrians had any connection with Iranian culture, and all used Karabela style left and right.

This, I think, is the strongest and the most obvious indirect evidence of the Turkish Ottoman primacy in the introduction of Karabela-type handle into the world military practice.

However, we seem to have a direct evidence as well : the actual sword of Sultan Selim I kept in Topkapi.
This is the same Selim the Grim (born 1465-1470 (?), died 1520) who defeated Persian Shah Ismail at Chahldiran in 1514 ,and who destroyed the Egyptian Mamluks in 1517. He lived, as is obvious, 100 years before Shah Abbas who is so generously credited with the invention of the Karabela handle. As seen from the attached pic, this pattern was in use in Turkey well before Abbas' visit to Karbala.

13th December 2012, 07:02 PM	#1
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Origins of karabela I put a note in another thread to this effect, but perhaps we need to have a separate thread, to question the common misconseption. There is a widespread belief that Karabela ( handle , of course) is of Iranian origin and stems from Karbala. This is based mainly on Khorasani's assertion and his fancy idea that the shape of the handle follows the outline of the windows in the Karbala shrine, but..! .....only if we divide the window in half:-) Many fancy derivations were invented for the word karabela ( including italian cara bella, dear beauty:-)), but the most obvious one, i.e. the Turkish locality call Karabel, was relegated to the back of the line. There is, however, a simple fact of the distribution of such handles. It is a truism that any invention of a particular culture/tradition would be most popular in the country of origin and will spread to the surrounding, influenced, societies. First, there are very few karabelas in Iran. Second, there are virtually no karabelas in the Iran-influenced countries: India, Afghanistan, Central Asian Khanates . In contrast, there are many of them in Turkey proper and , most importantly, everywhere the Ottomans went: Eastern Europe, Balkans, Hungary, Austria, North Africa ( their yataghan handles) and Aravia proper ( Yemeni examples). The argument of Polish admiration for all things Persian does not hold water: neither Croats, nor North African, Hungarians or Styrians had any connection with Iranian culture, and all used Karabela style left and right. This, I think, is the strongest and the most obvious indirect evidence of the Turkish Ottoman primacy in the introduction of Karabela-type handle into the world military practice. However, we seem to have a direct evidence as well : the actual sword of Sultan Selim I kept in Topkapi. This is the same Selim the Grim (born 1465-1470 (?), died 1520) who defeated Persian Shah Ismail at Chahldiran in 1514 ,and who destroyed the Egyptian Mamluks in 1517. He lived, as is obvious, 100 years before Shah Abbas who is so generously credited with the invention of the Karabela handle. As seen from the attached pic, this pattern was in use in Turkey well before Abbas' visit to Karbala. Attached Images