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Originally Posted by A.alnakkas
The blade on one of Ibrahim's 'karabelas' have one that looks identical to the ardha blades made recently in Saudi Arabia. The armoured figure is almost identical (imitation of clauberg) I have done some research on these and had one before:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14020
The blade is generally slim but can be thick. The shallow 3 fullers are identical but it seems that Ibrahim's karabela is aged to look old. These are not touristy but made for ardha dance in alTaif :-) |
Salaams A.alnakkas Yes to your previous post; it certainly is interesting. I personally don't make Falcon head hilts though I do have a few in stock. I like them. ...Falcon head or Hawkshead in fact, it was a term I think first coined by me to describe both the falcon head style emanating more likely in Turkish/Hungarian swords(Karabela) entering the Red Sea regions and what I thought were the derived more simple wooden hilts covered in leather made in centres like Mussandam and Muscat. The style almost lends itself to a ships cutlass type of weapon though I now think that may be more myth than fact. I like to attribute the Zanzibari Nimcha to that role.
The other long hilted slavers Kattara was certainly a weapon carried by the Omani slave captains and merchants and indeed VIPs.
I think a realisation needs to be applied to the phenomena of swords at #1 since people may be confused. The blades may indeed be real (I believe they are) What appears to have happenend is that enterprising souk merchants have cottoned on to the abundant supplies of blades which poured into Africa and Red Sea regions of Arabia and have matched every form of hilt and blade purely to move metal. I suggest that one of the pivottal date groups concerning Yemen may be the exodus of Jews period 1948 and into the mid 50s. I think this is the period that spawned the cheap and cheerful hilts seen at #1. The blades in many cases were real enough but had likely no place in any countries historical tradition outside of their European birthplace or peripheral. For this reason we observe Tulvar hilted Ethiopian (German) blades, Omani long hilted Nimcha conversions of the # 1 type blade and the straight down the line attempt to sell the cheap Yemeni hilted European short blades in all the souks previously mentioned. Upon this note it is purely the way the souks handle bulk shipments; some go direct to the shopfronts others go direct to workshops for remodelling ~ either way these blades end up going over the counter as tourist items here in the Omani souks. As you know the shopsellers in souks who are perhaps not too well educated may well answer tourist querries with a statement that he thinks that is what the tourist wants to hear~ Its not exactly a lie ... but its not exactly the truth either.... and tourists dont half ask some stupid questions!! Bless them all !!
I can see how up the Red Sea they may be used on proper hilts for Razha / sword dances but that is reserved here normally for the Omani dancing Sayf though in the UAE I've seen long curved blades used too.
One can hardly blame the old souk merchants, after all, for how many years have the international sword community been hoodwinked by their own nostalgia over swords of this type?
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.