Origins of the term 'pulwar' or Afghan tulwar.
 

Hello folks, once again the old grey matter has been spured into action! This morning whilst in deep and meaningful conversation :) with an Afghan friend,Farid, we touched on the subject of historic Afghan weaponry. Now, my chum was a former fighter in with the northern alliance, is a keen student of his national heritage and in the past has been a real help re Afghan weapons, but today, not even the grim results of a naff vending machine could stir his wisdom regarding the sword we all seem to know as the pulwa/pulouar. I tried every conceivable method of pronouncing the word yet got no joy. My question then is this; is pulwar an Anglo collectors term or a less common Afghan name? My friend- who speaks Farsi/Pashtun and Urdu- recognised the sword from a rough drawing I made but as a Tulwar, he has a good knowledge of Chooras, the bigger khyber knife, tabar, lohar etc, yet knew not the elegant down drooping quillons of the Pulwar. He did tell some very interesting family stories relating to the use of edged weapons, especially the use of jezail muskets in the early years of the war against the soviets and the somewhat grizzly ways in which kalishnikovs were first precured by his elders!
Thanks in advance Andy

Possibly Indian? Stone and Tirri both use the word pulouar to describe "an Indian sword [or saber]", the latter noting it was used extensively in Afghanistan. Stone references Egerton for the name. Egerton appears to have taken the name from Rockstuhl, Musee de Tsarskoe Seloe, ou Collection des Armes Rares, Anciennes et Orientales de sa Majeste l'Empereur de Toutes les Russies, St. Petersburg and Carslrue, 1835-1853. A pulouar from that collection is shown in Plate III as one of a group of Indian swords. The "Note on the Transliteration and Spelling of Indian Words" by Colonel Yule, C.B. in Egerton includes pulouar among the list of "words that are hard to identify, owing not only to loose, sometimes merely phonetic transcription, but also to the use of local terms which do not enter dictionaries".

I know this will sound a little off, but bugger it: you have got to get him on here, so I (and probably many others) can bombard him with jezail-related questions!

On a more seriously related note, it seems fairly likely that "pulwar" may be a corruption of the original Indian "tulwar", either a local variation (what with the subcontinent being so damn vast and all, not too difficult to find literally dozens of variants on even such a relatively simple word) or one resulting from mistaken transcription by Europeans. One is inclined to speculate about the origin of the name "Calcutta", compared to the modern "Kolkata", for example; it seems likely that, if this name were in use upon the arrival of the first Britons, many of them fairly high up the social ladder, the Indian "Kolkata" might sound, to them, not unlike "Calcutta".

The origin of the term or its association to that of the tulwar is best left to the linguists, but according to Rawson (p.86), the tulwar term is derived from the Persian 'pouluar' and is a term used in Islamic tonques in the northwest for 'sword'.

This reference to Islamic tongues may include the Urdu language which is I believe combined Hindi and Persian. Some references say the tulwar term is Urdu or Panjabi.

Collectors have apparantly often considered the paluoar to have derived from 'revival' swords, which is a loosely applied reference in this case to the Qajar weapons used in the Shi'a 'Passion Plays' which portray the martyrdom of Ali. These swords, with downward drooping quillons are said to allude to the early Arab swords in use at that time, and are based on the Sacred Swords held in Topkapi in Istanbul. Many of these swords were remounted in the Turkic fashion in 16th century using the serpent motif on drooping quillons. These style quillons (as seen on the paluoar) are reminiscent of early Seljuq Turk hilts of 12-13th c. but seen as early as the 9th .

The Qajar revival swords are stated of mid 19th century, but appeared probably quite early as the dynasty began in 1796. I am not convinced that the paluoar is an interpretation of these 'Qajar Revival' swords as it would seem examples of some palouar are earlier in the 18th century, however more research on the influence of the earlier Persian swords such as the Qama might reveal influence there.

The paluoars were typically quite elegant sabres for elite and high station individuals, but later became popularly produced in numbers for general use in the mid 19th century. The style seems to have fallen out of favor later in the century.

I can't help you with a definition of the sword name pulwar, but a pulwar can also be a light flat-bottomed Indian river boat.

Sorry for the slow reply gentlemen-just moved house and a bit all over the place at the moment. I did however today manage another conversation with my Afghan friend and he agreed that the term poular/pulwar is probably a localised varient of Tulwar-a term apparently well known by most Afghans. Interestingly, Farid was very surprised and pleased that so many people have such a deep interest in his countries history and culture. He has also very kindly offered to help with translation of any farsi/ pashtoon inscriptions.
Regards and thanks Andy

Hi Andy,
I wonder if you could show the attached to your friend Farid. So far it has defied translation, the text may or may not be inverted! Many thanks in advance.
My Regards,
Norman.

Hi Norman,
I have taken a picture to show Farid, hopefully I will have something to tell you tomorrow!
Andy

Hello again Norman, sorry, no luck with the translation- Farid failed to recognise the text but his offer still stands and is very willing to help where he can. Regards Andy.

Hi Andy,
Many thanks to you and Farid for giving it a go.
My Regards,
Norman.