Thouma Jambiya by BOUSANI
 

Quite by chance, this Jambiya came my way recently.
The Bousani Family are one of the top Yemenite Jewish Silversmith families, who worked in a small village called Bait Baws, which is on the outskirts of Sana'a. They were famous for the intricate silverwork, and open filigree work which they produced. This Jambiya features both these traits.
As with most of the Jewish Silversmiths in Yemen, they moved to Israel when it came into being in 1949. There is a picture below courtesy of Steve Gracie's book, showing Haim Bousani at work in his shop in Israel in 1950.
The Jambiya itself is mounted on a handmade belt which features gold and silver thread, and is decorated with silver fittings. The BOUSANI stamp is impressed on the back of the triangular piece.
The hilt is horn, with guilded decoration and silver pins. Probably rhino to match the quality of the rest of the piece, but unsure. The blade is nothing out of the ordinary.
I have shown several pics of the jambiya removed from its belt, as a significant amount of the beautiful silverwork is hidden when attached.
Enjoy

Sweet piece Stu :)

Congrats

Lew

Nice one Stu! very beautiful piece, one of the best sliver work I seen in a long time :-)

One further pic added.
Stu

excellent craftmanship on this piece. Can you post close ups of the hilt? perhaps one from the top of the hilt to see if its rhino or not. The blade looks pretty good have you checked if its 2 layer type or a forged one?

Hi Lofty,
The blade looks to be forged. I will take some more pics of the hilt tomorrow when daylight returns.
Stu

Congratulations Stu! Realy excelent quality silver work. A pleasure to see.

Spiral

What a great piece Stu. Excellent all round, I bet you're well chuffed?
I know I would be if it were mine :)
Well done buddy.

:D :D :D :D

Hi Stu
excellent jambiya , especially with his belt, accessories
and the stamp of the master craftsman, which authenticates the origin

if one day you look for a shelter for it, I should ... surely find a place :p
thanks to have given us the pleasure to share with us :D

all the best

à +

Dom

Salaams Khanjar 1~ This is indeed an important addition to Forum reminding us that these silversmiths are all but lost to history although there is a handful left operating in Yemen. It further serves to illustrate the linkage and influence reflected in Omani silverwork underscored by Ruth Hawley in her famous pamphlet Omani Silver who states that Quote "Jews too may have worked silver in Oman".Unquote. She goes on to draw several parallels with Omani and Yemeni silver designs.

See http://thewalters.org/eventscalendar...ls.aspx?e=2548 for further work by such Yemeni Jewish masters including important buckle identification and another Thuma.

Jesus ben Sirach (Ecclesiastus) writing during the Greek period at the end of the third century BCE, describes the activity of Judaic smiths in vivid poetry:

The maker of carving and cunning device,
Who by night as by day has no rest,
Who engraveth signet rings,
Whose art is to make the likeness true,
And his anxiety is to complete the work.
So also the smith that sitteth by the furnace,
And regardeth his weighty vessels;
The flame of the fire cracketh his flesh,
And with the heat of his furnace he gloweth;
To the hammer's sound he inclineth his ear,
And to the vessel's pattern he directeth his eyes.

For an interesting historical version of Jewish craftsmanship including their presence in Yemen and other countries in Arabia see http://www.hebrewhistory.info/factpa...017-1_gold.htm :shrug:

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Hi Lofty,
Here are close ups as requested. Hope someone can identify if its rhino or not.
Stu

Its a nice hilt but I dont think its Rhino. I think there is a chance that the hilt is more recent than the scabbard and blade though but thats ok since its a common practice.

I'm not sure... I would like to see a close-up of the very end. It has a Rhino look to me.

No Rhino there Stu but a very fine piece, congrats.

Gav

Thanks Lofty, Monti and Gav. Must admit I did not think it was rhino, but then I do not have the experience to know by looking at it.
Happy anyway! :)

Hello Stu
I know that you didn't request it, but for the "fun"
we tried to translate the silversmith stamp ... under reserve, should be
AARON BEN CHAMAT

à +

Dom

Thanks for that. If you have Steve Gracie's book JAMBIYA you will see the same stamp correctly identified as that of the Bousani Family. Perhaps Aaron Ben Chamat is one of the workers, though the I would very much doubt that the "Family" stamp would include someone else's name. :confused:

**************************************
Salaams Khanjar 1.
On closer inspection I note a number of anomalies with the assembled item.

1. The Dagger is added and comes from an ordinary Jambia.
2. It appears that there may be 3 items of silver from different smiths ~

a. The stamped girdle buckle.
b. The top rectangle of the scabbard.
c. The rest of the scabbard furniture. (and probably the belt buttons)

The belt is probably a random Yemeni belt.

It may be that the items 2a and 2c are linked though a simple inspection to the reverse should identify the stamps perhaps?

So that a clear picture can be made on forum can you kindly say which parts are original and which parts were placed by you? :shrug:

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

so sorry Stuward, to be a disruptive ... but what can I do ? :p
no mention of "Bousani", and I dunno who is this "Aaron Ben Chamat"
but where we may be formal, it's about "Aaron Ben ...."

Aaron even if this name is mentioned in the Holy Quran, is more attributed
to Jewish men than to Muslims
also, you have to take in consideration that the "family name" doesn't exist in Middle-East families

"Bousani" may be, being the general name, under which several families, was regrouped
the name mentioned said ; "Aaron son of Chamat" ... form very classic, in Arabic's world
not in the Great Maghreb (Tunisia - Algeria - Morocco) where the Napoleonic Code has been implanted with the French colonisation

in Middle-East, the complete name for identification of some one, consist of
- name of the person, for instance "Aaron"
- name of his father, for instance "Chamat"
- name for his grand-father, ... "unknown"
even the Christians "Melkite" have the same procedure, as well as Muslims

So, even being part of the group "Bousani" our guy, could well be called "Aaron ben Chamat",
that seems to us absolutely not incongruous. :D

I don't have Steve Gracie's book "Jambiya", but I haven't a lot :o

all the best my friend

à +

Dom

Aaron Ben Chamat equals Aaron son of Chamat?

YES ... SIR :D

The whole item is as I received it. Unlike some, I do not replace parts of the original to try and create something else.
You state that the work is that of three different smiths. Perhaps you could enlighten us with their names, and the particular features which identify them??

:) No need for apology as this is a DISCUSSION Forum. We can only go by information published or made known elseware.

The three different smiths ah yes ... I believe one of them is Bedihi and the other Bawdani (Boudani) and though the stamp is upside down I cannot make it out on the girth buckle but Dom reckons Aaron etc etc...so thats three.

(Frankly Im not "so concerned" with the silver stamps since the one in question is likely to be Jewish and they were all pretty brilliant silversmiths... which is why it may be worth looking on the reverse of the plates.)

It depends what you mean by identifying them as they were very similar in design...all Im pointing out is that there appears to be more than one style and perhaps as many as three ... or four if you include the dagger.
The rectangular plate at the throat of the scabbard is certainly Jewish work but of a much older date...it is evenly very worn with a deeper patina and a quality to it that speaks of Bedihi in my view.
The bigger plates below may be Bawdani; certainly Jewish but not as old...
The belt buckle dominant feature marking it as different from the others is the very long leaf folded silver wire designs probably a speciality of Aaron... by the way there is an item missing which is the other bit of the buckle and an example can be seen at http://vividvault.com/wp-content/upl...-end-Yemen.jpg

Remember that they were making weapons not for themselves but solely for the Yemeni clients so anything could have happened afterwards. In terms of jewellery you probably realise that though Jewish women wore different items of jewellery from the Yemenis notably since it was worn for different reasons mainly practical around the hood of their cloaks but occasionally and for talismanic reasons they wore the jewellery of "the others" as protection from djinns etc....that it was all made by the same Jewish smiths is quite formidable... but it perhaps underscores how difficult tracing stamps may turn out to be because there were many and all of a sudden they almost all vanished.

This is an immense subject but since the door has been opened it can run and run especially on the vast detail as yet uncatalogued about hallmarks/stamps... I would have thought that would have been something to work on since you don't appear to have time for restoration it seems ? Better to leave it to the experts I suppose :shrug:

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Salaams,
I asked my workshops people to look at the item in case from the restoration/ workshop bench angle further clues could be gleaned by their expert eyes. They think the dagger has been worked on with the addition of a new blade and gilding work on the two floral flowers both added recently. There is araldite behind the top flower (or some odd glue). The hilt is cowhorn. There are several silver styles of different makers.

The scabbard has two different silver makers work with as I said earlier the top rectangle being older, probably antique, though both styles appear to be Jewish Yemeni work. The leather normally expected to line the outer wooden sheath is missing in the top section at least.

The belt is probably a replacement (not that unusual) with a girth buckle as described and floral buttons.

The general consensus is that the project has been worked up from a series of spare parts by a workshop/restorer and aimed not at the Arab market but at the foreign collector/tourist market.

Why? This is a lesson for all beginners in collecting Southern Arabian (and Omani) daggers; The first thing a local observes on inspecting a weapon is the blade. The second thing is the hilt. Two items which are normally quite expensive. Cheap blades/cheap hilts both = Tourist daggers.

Jewish Yemeni makers clients were Yemeni Arabs..Very decerning about their daggers as "badge of office" and willing to pay the price for top quality blades and hilts ~ Thuma or Jambia ~ Neither this blade nor this hilt would adorn the original finely worked scabbard. The final inspection would be on the third subject "the scabbard and belt". The discerning local buyer would probably be looking for silver workmanship from one craftsman; not several.

On the other hand collectors (and tourists) tend not to be so concerned about the blade and provided the scabbard looks ok and the hilt looks reasonable they often take on project worked items of this quality. On the one hand adorned with some superb Jewish plates and on the other less well matched additions though giving an over all impression of "nice."

So it is with the restorers eye that I have reverse engineered this project dagger showing about 6 stages of a reworked/ rebuilding process designed to reintroduce the Thuma onto the international market by cleverly masking the real situation. So the lessons for inspection are important; Consider first the blade then the hilt~ If they aren't up to the mark it is likely not to be real. If its not real its "likely" to be a tourist dagger.

Khanjar 1 whilst I am very upbeat about the Jewish Yemeni stamp and even more so about the superb Jewish Yemeni silver rectangle at the throat of the scabbard, I have to be honest with the restoration revue but at the same time urge further research into the important area of Jewish involvement especially in the stamps. Steven Gracies superb work on Yemeni daggers is a good starting point for anyone researching the general subject and the pictures are brilliant. :shrug:

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Salaams Ibrahiim,
I find your comments really interesting especially considering that most of the Khanjars and Jambiyas you display on your many posts are obviously new, or at least well worked over so that any originality has been destroyed.
If the Bousani has been worked on in the past, at least it still shows some age, and a good deal of its originality. Bousani was well known for fine silver work, BUT ALSO for pierced work.
It is a well known fact, at least in Yemen, that the Jambiyas themselves are often replaced in an old and original scabbard, so I am not at all surprised if this Jambiya is a replacement, and is not the same age as the rest of the "set".
If you have Steve Gracie's book, and your comments suggest that you have, then maybe you should read it, and particularly note the comments he makes regarding the making of the Jambiya "set". Steve does currently, and has in the past, travelled extensivly in Yemen and has many contacts there, and I believe that he knows what he is talking about.

Yemeni, Omani and Saudi items tend to have slightly different decoration scheme at the throat then the rest of the scabbard. Just because the throat is different then the rest doesnt say much about the age or replacement.

Also the assessment about the blade is... so made up its not even funny. There is nothing that suggests the blade to be of poor quality or 'not fit for the scabbard'

Agree on the hilt though.

Salaams A.alnakkas ~ On the subject of the top rectangle~Its not so important a point really since the very interesting detail is in the craftsmanship of the various silver plates in general. Looking closely however at the wear on the top section it seems to be far older than the remainder... Im not denegrating it in any way because of that.. I am reverse engineering what I believe to be a project piece put together from spare parts albeit rather nice in places and having described the mental process a local buyer goes through when examining a potential purchase. Even if you think the blade is original (I don't neither does Khanjar ! see #1 Quote"The blade is nothing out of the ordinary" Unquote..) there is a question over the hilt as you have agreed and further I suggest that the gold floral buttons are recent and done deliberately to match the floral decor in the scabbard. I simply reverse engineered that thus the entire hilt comes into question as per my previous post suggesting it is a 6 part restoration project.
I stick to my revue on that score but that should not deflect the thread which I believe can go on to discus Jewish-Yemeni craftsmanship in some depth.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Salaams kahnjar1 ~ Your opener is odd since certainly I show the ancient battle swords and Khanjars old and new..perhaps your computer screen is affected by the light... or needs adjusting :shrug: We do a lot of new work that is true but that is the subtle difference in understanding old and new ethnographic arms. Oddly the ancient techniques are ongoing and whereas a local buyer will purchase antique and old work there is a huge demand for brand new pieces. I don't think my pictures divulge any loss in originality though it is also true that clients want clean Khanjars. After all, it only takes a very short time for the khanjars to develop patina since the silver oxidises very fast. Etho arms collectors internationally want patina but here, "where the metal meets the meat"... they don't.

Studying this item is a good way to absorb a lot of the specialist techniques in the earlier Jewish dominated silver crafts of Yemen. This isn't a competition nor is it a show of whos got the nicest lollipop :) but whilst forum members are absolutely within their rights to sensationalise with comments like wow, oooh, super, lovely and I wish I had one, other more serious comments must be expected which can sometimes lead to a heated, debated, discussion. In that way often fresh facts pop out or the thread ploughs forth into unknown but fascinating territory. The end result is a forum winner. A team effort.

I dont have the book by Steve Gracie but I'm getting it.

All my knowledge comes from hands on and common sense... plus a certain amount of web work and reading our forum library. Because of the influence on Omani ethnographics it is vital for me to get on top of the Yemeni subject.

Incidentally ~ There are two books that I may have reccommended to forum that I regret to report should be struck off viz;

1.Ethnic Jewellery edited by John Mack published for the trustees of the British Museum ( at the time of publication he was Keeper at the Museum of Mankind(department of Ethnography) , The British Museum. The book comprises 207 pages of work with a special chapter devoted to The Middle East.

2.Arab and Islamic Silver by Dr. Saad al Jadir. 216 pages with a vast 37 page section devoted to Oman and Yemen.

Neither book mentions Jewish Silver Craftsmanship; neither in the sections devoted to Yemen nor in the sections on adjoining countries... It is like they never existed. Nothing exists in the index or in the body of the books. The books must have been proof read by an ethnographic elimination panel. They are washed clean of any mention of Jewish Craftsmanship in all respects... I was shocked. I threw them away.

Therefor I look forward to getting a decent book on the subject.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.