During the Qajar era, Iran made frantic efforts to modernize their country in general and military in particular. Western-type weapons, bladed included, were imported and copied locally en masse. The old style weapons were discarded rapidly. Tabars, bazu-bands, shields, kula-khuds all became anachronistic. Thus, there was no reason to produce them for military use, but tey did look exotic! Instead, their cheap copies of non-fighting quality were manufactured for tourists, for parades, Tazieh performances and for export as souvenirs. The standard set of tin-iron kula-khud, shield with acid-etched or engraved decorative pics and a single bazu-band was a popular object of Western home decor ( akin to Victorian copies of European armour). Add there the so-called "revival swords" ( suspiciously similar to the newer Sudanese kaskaras with thin blades and koranic acid-etched inscriptions all over them), khanjars with ivory handles and Shah-Nameh or just pornographic motives and tabars with thin flat blades, and you get the idea.
Before the oil era, this scrap metal and carpets were, I suspect, the main sources of export coming from Iran. Having come through a multitude of dealers and pawn shops, they are now flooding the e-bay.
I would not touch them.
Well, maybe just a carpet :-)
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