Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - You may know them as Omani Saifs but they will always be Kattara to me

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 29th February 2012, 06:58 AM

Salaams Michael Blalock~

Quote "You may know them as Omani Saifs but they will always be Kattara to me

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I recently got this Omani Saif with the saber blade. It looks very handsome next to it's cousin, an Omani straight blade with the same beautiful silver wire grip which I have had for a while."Unquote

The Straight is a Sayf and the Curved is a Kattara.
Reference A. Forum Thread; Kattara for Comments.
Reference B. Richardson and Dorr(for The Oman Heritage Documentation Project) Craft Heritage of Oman. page 454 /455 etc.
Reference C. The Omani National Museum Muscat.

Naturally, if you have become stuck upon the wording there is not much I can do... but they are different. Does it matter?... I think it does. We seek out the proper names no?

Omani straight dancing Sayf are flexible through about 90 degrees of bend... does yours flex through that and return to straight immediately, or not?

Your Omani Straight Sayf looks like a Red Sea variant in that it may not be the flexible weapon required for dancing. I mention weapon loosely... since technically straight Omani Sayf dancing swords are not weapons. This should not be taken as an insult... since your sword could well be a weapon derived from the Saudia variant originating from the Ottoman copied from the Mamluke who in turn took the design on from the Abbasid and they from the Greek.

Your straight Sayf sword could be the origin of species (Im talking about the blade here) of the straight Omani Sayf dancing sword which appeared in Oman in about the mid to late 18th C.

The Long Omani Hilt may originate in the sword style shown (I think in your own pictures) from Saudia/Yemen and on the main thread Kattara for Comment(another mistakenly worded thread though at the time the entire world was in some confusion about the right name) The Long Hilt is favoured on both Straight Omani Sayf dancing swords and on Curved Omani Kattara.(Shamshir style exempt for now)

Many straight and curved Red Sea variants have been refitted in Muscat, Ras al Khaimah, Salalah, and Nizwa etc with long hilts including Ethiopian (European blades) and Saudia and Yemeni blades simply by extending the tang and adding a pommel... then tuning up the combination with Omani scabbards~ I think yours is one of these.

By definition all Curved Omani Kattara are hybrids since they usually have a European blade ( except in the style sometimes called Shamshir in Persian terms) and these Curved Omani Kattara have extended tangs and added pommels (usually). The curved Kattara you show falls into that category.

What we are left with is that Oman has one original sword unique to itself and originating in circa 751AD as the Old Omani Battle Sword (Sayf al Yamaani) and from a design of Abbasid weapon to which I have compared it in 11 separate categories.

It can be said that in the same way that curved blades have been incorporated into Omani tradition that straight swords from other regions have also been absorbed.. While that may be true it is incumbent upon us to qualify as closely as we can where interlopers(or cousins) exist as certainly this makes the whole business more fascinating.

The rest as they say is history.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

29th February 2012, 06:58 AM	#4
Ibrahiim al Balooshi Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE Posts: 4,408	Salaams Michael Blalock~ Quote "You may know them as Omani Saifs but they will always be Kattara to me -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I recently got this Omani Saif with the saber blade. It looks very handsome next to it's cousin, an Omani straight blade with the same beautiful silver wire grip which I have had for a while."Unquote The Straight is a Sayf and the Curved is a Kattara. Reference A. Forum Thread; Kattara for Comments. Reference B. Richardson and Dorr(for The Oman Heritage Documentation Project) Craft Heritage of Oman. page 454 /455 etc. Reference C. The Omani National Museum Muscat. Naturally, if you have become stuck upon the wording there is not much I can do... but they are different. Does it matter?... I think it does. We seek out the proper names no? Omani straight dancing Sayf are flexible through about 90 degrees of bend... does yours flex through that and return to straight immediately, or not? Your Omani Straight Sayf looks like a Red Sea variant in that it may not be the flexible weapon required for dancing. I mention weapon loosely... since technically straight Omani Sayf dancing swords are not weapons. This should not be taken as an insult... since your sword could well be a weapon derived from the Saudia variant originating from the Ottoman copied from the Mamluke who in turn took the design on from the Abbasid and they from the Greek. Your straight Sayf sword could be the origin of species (Im talking about the blade here) of the straight Omani Sayf dancing sword which appeared in Oman in about the mid to late 18th C. The Long Omani Hilt may originate in the sword style shown (I think in your own pictures) from Saudia/Yemen and on the main thread Kattara for Comment(another mistakenly worded thread though at the time the entire world was in some confusion about the right name) The Long Hilt is favoured on both Straight Omani Sayf dancing swords and on Curved Omani Kattara.(Shamshir style exempt for now) Many straight and curved Red Sea variants have been refitted in Muscat, Ras al Khaimah, Salalah, and Nizwa etc with long hilts including Ethiopian (European blades) and Saudia and Yemeni blades simply by extending the tang and adding a pommel... then tuning up the combination with Omani scabbards~ I think yours is one of these. By definition all Curved Omani Kattara are hybrids since they usually have a European blade ( except in the style sometimes called Shamshir in Persian terms) and these Curved Omani Kattara have extended tangs and added pommels (usually). The curved Kattara you show falls into that category. What we are left with is that Oman has one original sword unique to itself and originating in circa 751AD as the Old Omani Battle Sword (Sayf al Yamaani) and from a design of Abbasid weapon to which I have compared it in 11 separate categories. It can be said that in the same way that curved blades have been incorporated into Omani tradition that straight swords from other regions have also been absorbed.. While that may be true it is incumbent upon us to qualify as closely as we can where interlopers(or cousins) exist as certainly this makes the whole business more fascinating. The rest as they say is history. Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. Last edited by Ibrahiim al Balooshi; 29th February 2012 at 08:12 AM.