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Originally Posted by A.alnakkas
Salam Alaikum,
First, I do not think that the european industrial blade argument is dismantled in your answer. Your answer does not really answers the question actually.
It must be noted that the majority of european trade blades do not come from england, rather they come from Almajar (Hungary) or Germany. As far as I know, Germany imported steel from Sweden and there wasnt really any issue there. Your answer however, focuses on England which blade's are rare here (wilkinson blades being mostly sold to ethiopia but those are easy to tell apart from other blades)
What I find interesting in the Kattara is that it stayed landlocked in Oman and what is now the UAE... why was this form not adopted by other arabs? even though they were connected tribally (Bani Kaab tribe being the most obvious, as it exist in alBasra, Kuwait, AlAhwaz, Qatar and Oman/UAE) Why was the Badawi/syrian hilt style become dominant? keep in mind that there are straight blades with badawi hilt, they are called Garda.
Now to my opinion regarding your quest, I think its very good and respect worthy, but as an advice, when it comes to weapons and other important goods, forget about what might seem as religious barriers :-)
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Actually we do need to focus on Germany which is where most of the trade blades were from. England has never really done much in exporting blades except for later in the 19th century to colonial regions. Solingen, on the Wupper River is strategically located for its ore. Sweden was noted for cheaper iron exported much later in the 19th century and unsure of why Germany would have brought that in.
It has never been entirely clear about Hungarian blades, and actually it seems many of these were actually from Solingen or Styria, though there were a few makers, certainly insufficient for export. It does seem that in Arabia the 'Magyar' blades were much favored, but via Syria . These were sabre blades, not broadswords as in most Omani kattara. The larger part of the curved sabre blades came in the 19th century with Caucasian and other European imports.
I think the kattara was far from landlocked as far as the new form. These are well known in Zanzibar as well as well into Africa;s trade networks. It is tempting to associate the cylindrical guard Manding sabres of Mali as well as thed Maasai seme' of Kenya, which may have some degree of influence via Muscat merchants. The 'old' form seems to have remained in place in Omans interior regions contemporary with the new forms on the coast.
The markings phenomenon to me seems very much in line with the blade makers in Sudan where 'Kasallawi' makers produced kaskaras from the 1960s to present. The copied markings are similar but usually distinguishable from old ones by the blade context.
The Wilkinson blades were indeed produced for Abyssinia in the latter 19th century and most notably 1930s. Germany also produced blades for this market. Many of these blades ended up in Yemen where they were remounted in San'a.
We are focused on commercial and trade aspects, nothing to do with religion, so lets keep it that way OK .