Hatf
Hatf is a sword which the prophet Muhammad took as booty from the Banu Qaynaqa. It is said that King David took his sword “al-Battar” from Goliath as booty when he defeated him, but he was less than 20 years old. God gave King David the ability to work with iron, to make armor and weapons and instruments of war, and he made for himself a sword. It was thus that the Hatf sword came about, resembling the al-Battar but larger than it. He used this sword and it was passed onto the tribe of Levites who kept the weapons of the Israelites until it passed into the hands of the prophet Muhammad.
Today this sword is housed in the Topkapi museum. The blade is 112 cm in length and has a width of 8 cm. Photograph taken from Muhammad Hasan Muhammad al-Tihami, Suyuf al-Rasul wa ‘uddah harbi-hi (Cairo: Hijr, 1312/1992).
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