Salaams,
I asked my workshops people to look at the item in case from the restoration/ workshop bench angle further clues could be gleaned by their expert eyes. They think the dagger has been worked on with the addition of a new blade and gilding work on the two floral flowers both added recently. There is araldite behind the top flower (or some odd glue). The hilt is cowhorn. There are several silver styles of different makers.
The scabbard has two different silver makers work with as I said earlier the top rectangle being older, probably antique, though both styles appear to be Jewish Yemeni work. The leather normally expected to line the outer wooden sheath is missing in the top section at least.
The belt is probably a replacement (not that unusual) with a girth buckle as described and floral buttons.
The general consensus is that the project has been worked up from a series of spare parts by a workshop/restorer and aimed not at the Arab market but at the foreign collector/tourist market.
Why? This is a lesson for all beginners in collecting Southern Arabian (and Omani) daggers; The first thing a local observes on inspecting a weapon is the blade. The second thing is the hilt. Two items which are normally quite expensive. Cheap blades/cheap hilts both = Tourist daggers.
Jewish Yemeni makers clients were Yemeni Arabs..Very decerning about their daggers as "badge of office" and willing to pay the price for top quality blades and hilts ~ Thuma or Jambia ~ Neither this blade nor this hilt would adorn
the original finely worked scabbard. The final inspection would be on the third subject "the scabbard and belt". The discerning local buyer would probably be looking for silver workmanship from one craftsman; not several.
On the other hand collectors (and tourists) tend not to be so concerned about the blade and provided the scabbard looks ok and the hilt looks reasonable they often take on project worked items of this quality. On the one hand adorned with some superb Jewish plates and on the other less well matched additions though giving an over all impression of "nice."
So it is with the restorers eye that I have reverse engineered this project dagger showing about 6 stages of a reworked/ rebuilding process designed to reintroduce the Thuma onto the international market by cleverly masking the real situation. So the lessons for inspection are important; Consider first the blade then the hilt~ If they aren't up to the mark it is likely not to be real. If its not real its "likely" to be a tourist dagger.
Khanjar 1 whilst I am very upbeat about the Jewish Yemeni stamp and even more so about the superb Jewish Yemeni silver rectangle at the throat of the scabbard, I have to be honest with the restoration revue but at the same time urge further research into the important area of Jewish involvement especially in the stamps. Steven Gracies superb work on Yemeni daggers is a good starting point for anyone researching the general subject and the pictures are brilliant.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.