[Gonzalo G]

On the other side, wootz was not used only to produce weapons. And also, the archaeological discoveries in Central Asia had shown that there were other wootz centers of production, not mentioned by the old known written sources (at least, the sources known by occidentals), which makes me wonder about the limits of the antique sources taken individually. It must be pointed Gilmour references the strange fact that, being Al-Biruni a native of the southeast Central Asia Area, he did not mention Khorasan area as a center of production of wootz. I think the only ultimate source of knowledge grounded in solid facts about this point, is archaeology.

Also to be noted, is that modern scholars who have access to muslim sources in several languajes, rarely traslate them, so they remain as a de facto monopoly of the scarce reesearchers interested on this subjects. We need more occidental arabian-iranian-indian speakers interested in the traslation, publication and study of this texts.