Salaams all~
Yesterday. Research took me into the Muscat Mutrah souk muddle; a sprawling mass of Omani artefacts set amongst the myriad of hundreds of stores interlinked with winding passageways in a step back in time... trade in there is seldom less than booming... and I was joined by several thousand tourists from a couple of cruise ships parked a few hundred metres away ~ See my thread on Souks of Oman.
There is only really one shop amongst hundreds of others that is worth scrutiny and I spent a few hours looking at heaps of stuff. What is obvious are the masses of Yemeni Jambiyya daggers; mostly cheap stuff. Plenty of Karabella and some half dozen Saudia swords with peculiar elongated hilts of the sort seen on thread.
I also stumbled upon a few other weapons of some note. One showed a date of
1708 followed by some undecipherable squigles. It appeared to be an Omani SAYF (dancing sword) Most peculiar ~ In a flash I could see my entire threads input lurching in a tail spin with flames accompanying !! This was indeed a puzzle and it was not until I was able to analyse the photos that it struck me by inverting the sword what it was.
SOLI followed by a few squigles of which the first letter was
N....An invisible finger tapped me on the shoulder at that point and whipered
SOLINGEN stupid !
The blade not of the same material as a normal Omani Sayf ... The long hilt having been put on by the shop owner 10 years ago and he couldnt remember if it was a welded on Tang !! By pure chance the sword owner walked in... and by even purer chance I knew the lady from 15 years ago ~ A visitor to my shop here !! The sword had come back in for a clean up ///
No one had any idea what this was. Now I realise what it is
On the reverse is a strange set of capital letters that seem to read STAMM STAMM repeated twice on the blade commencing at the hilt though the first few letters of the first word are a bit unreadable. I assume it is STAMM. The meaning is unknown. The letters are identical in style with flared ends.
Before anyone faints I have to caution that this is the only one I have ever seen and that the hilt is probably modified on a Solingen blade of early manufacture since the style of alphabet is the old one with small flares at the end of each capital letter. The date is unknown. I would say 17th or 18th C. It may be a blade off the African side... not as broad as Omani sayf, culminating in a point and flexible but not so flexible as an Omani Sayf. One fuller.We are lucky in that I have identified the man who reworked the hilt and the owner who lives in Muscat... Lucky indeed.
So that forum can take a swing at this I have isolated this on one post and will present the other finds separately... it gets interesting..
PHOTOS
The sword being discussed in this post is at the top of the first picture. The other two swords and others will be discussed in another post.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.