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Originally Posted by russel
Hello all,
I picked up this silver Jambiya scabbard recently. Sadly no Jambiya to go with it, but the price was too good to let go. I know little about Jambiya and hope members here can tell me a little about what I have. Is it a quality piece, or average? The metalwork seems quite intricate. It has seen a little damage and there are obviously a few pieces missing (including the knife!), but overall I find it a rather attractive item.
As usual, all thoughts and comments are welcome and appreciated.
Cheers, Russel
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Salaams Russel, This is indeed an interesting scabbard. Its not Omani, however, but appears to originate in the Saudia region way down on the Yemeni border. Omanis call these Habaabi and a whole lot of detail is at Forum library ...for example at
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlight=habaabi where #24 has several actual examples.
I chased around the region looking for origins of the weapon and concluded it was actually based on the Muscat Khanjar ...effectively the forerunner to the Royal Omani
sa'idiyyah construction ...the latters hilt being designed by the famous princess Sheherezad..See
The Omani Khanjar http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...=Omani+Khanjar. I figured that the region was firmly on the sea trade route between Muscat and Zanzibar and that the Muscat dagger had migrated to that region (through trade) which prior to about 1920 was in the Yemen.
You can see the damage caused by the spiggots roughly stuck into the scabbard leather ( usually with a wood core) You can also see that many parts are missing. The trouble is that the scabbard is peculiar with the leather markings..perhaps it would be better left as it is..If only they could talk?
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
