Two of these spherical pommel swords are shown by Michael Blalock on 11 May 2005. He notes these as Yemeni, but with connection to Bukhara, with explanation as follows:
" ....Mir-I-Madrasa (1535)
The Mir-i-Arab madrassah with the Mosque Bukhara's main kosh ensemble.
Under the left dome are buried Uyaydullah Khan (one of the first
Bukharen royals to not have his own mausoleum) and sheikh Mir-i-Arab after whom the madrasa is named. He is variously described as an architect, a YEMENI merchant and spiritual mentor of the early Sheibanids".
Michael here notes, "..this explains how a Central Asian sword could have
ended up in Yemen in the 1960s".
Auctions Imperial (3/16/2013, lot #230)
A CENTRAL ASIAN BROADSWORD . The description notes that this sword (of the type hilt described as Yemeni in these discussions noted in current thread) and that the item is of 19th c. and from the EMIRATE OF BUKHARA.
Supporting references are "A Song in Metal" Abdullayev, the Moser collection, Coe ("Swords and Hilt Weapons"p.141); "Szabla Wschodnia i jej Typu Naradowe" Jarnuszkiewicz, plate 11.
Also noted is a reference to a frescoe with image of a Samanid king with similar, 9th century, at Nishapur.
Yucel, "Islamic Swords and Swordsmiths", shows a 15th century Mamluk sword with this type of hilt.
To the SPIRAL banding:
Artzi (Oriental Arms) 11 May 2005, notes a 19th c. sa'if in a museum in San'a and that the original scabbards for these type swords usually include a SILVER STRIP spirally bound on them. A very similar SPIRAL binding is also COMMON ON BUKHARA swords as well as on other oriental swords.
Top images:
Left: the two swords posted by M.Blalock 2005, as Yemeni
next: The 15th c.Mamluk sword in Yucel.
" The Auctions Imperial example, 19th c Emirate of Bukhara
" My Hadhramauti sa'if (Elgood, Lebedynsky, et al)
right: one of these hilts but pommel more pointed ovoid as seen on
the Bukharen scabbard tips in my previous (one with
silver spiral band).
Last edited by Jim McDougall; 23rd August 2019 at 10:48 PM.
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