Who has commentary to distinguish Kurdish weaponry from Arab at the time? (I have no idea; heck, I don't know anything constructive about modern Kurdish edged weapons
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Even if Rivkin is incorrect about the more Northern peoples, it's certainly possible the curved swords are ethnically correct for some portion of the army, nor would it surprise me if there were some sabre type swords all along, as there more or less were in Europe, but if they are depicted as the dominant type, that seems incorrect to me. What of jambiya and its curvature? Some old swords we've discussed recently have rather jamiyesque handles, but straight blades..........How old is the (Eastern?) Afrasian simply curved two-edged dagger/sword? I don't seem to recall it from "classical antiquity?" (among Afrasians around the Mediterranean, though curved double-edgers are occasionally seen out of BCE Europe, and mainly I don't know what with nonmediterranean Afrasians; the more southern protoBerbers; Africa remains a dark continent in the same sense as the premedieval period was Europe's dark age; it has been hidden from us....archaeology has been making inroads in both.....)........random thoughts; seeem relevant somehow.....