Thread: Odd Sword
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Old 4th June 2015, 11:19 PM   #13
Jim McDougall
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Without going through resources in usual lengthy foray, I'd say Iain is pretty much spot on suggesting a European arming sword, probably Walloon or Pappenheimer and probably 17th century.
The shouldered forte and panel with these letters correspond to similar arrangements in Spanish/Italian blades and their Solingen counterparts.

The letters are probably acrostic, and often occur representing various slogans, invocations or mottos so are typically indecipherable. This practice seems to have originated in Italy and was soon copied widely, however there are far earlier blades with such mysterious inscribed letters.

It does seem unusual for one of these blades to end up in this particular Omani context, they are more often likely to turn up in kaskara in the rather limited cases that they do appear. It would be anyone's guess as to how this blade came into what appears to be a 'Mutrah' setting, but I think Ibrahiims suggestion of entry into the 'Red Sea' network probable. The Bedouin across Yemeni regions often stockpiled numbers of blades from these sources.

The curious application of the 'Star of Solomon' on the pommel does seem decorative and might well be inspired by any number of sources, with this device often appearing on Ethiopian blades from England which came into Yemen from there. The primary interest in the blades out of Ethiopia was the rhino hilts, and the blades were either hilted in San'aa in various forms or went to trade sources eastward.
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