Thanks Jim, Your input is accurate and precise with superb references supporting your post ...as always. Thank you for your supporting evidence. A good deal of further evidence can be found simply by tapping Omani Swords into SEARCH and this function is free and easy to use by Forum members.
A number of vital parts of the puzzle are also important such as the part played in the Omani Funoon which are the unwritten acted out traditions... The Funoon. Its a big subject but in short it is the unwritten traditions from the beginning handed down through music, dance, and poetry as well as a sort of Pantomime enactment that that reaches way back to pre 8thC. In this way they record many events mimicking camel trains, ships trading chests of silver and gold and of course war all set to music/ drum beat or poetry and singing. For the sword enactments we see the Sayf and Terrs being used. In fact much of the Rythm is absorbed by the Slave Trade especially from Central Africa and Zanzibar which has left an indelible imprint on Omani music and dance down the ages. In addition myth and legend has erased much of the BunyoroKitara facts because like the Omani form these pageants and enactments took over from the written word thus events were simply passed down and often changed or forgotten in lieu of myths and legends...That is clearly seen in the Bunyoro-Kitara model.
Regarding swords a clear picture is retained in the Razha sword dance where mimic swordplay is acted out and scored with one single winning point when one swordsman touches the opponents thumb of his shield hand with the flat spatulate tip of his Sayf...end of contest. Another enactmant is carefully choreographed for the duelling Khanjar....The dance is called The Bar'aa.
Interestingly the terrs has been handed down so that it is carried with each sword from The Sayf Yamaani to the Sayf and then to The Kitara. ....
In this post I will show the link between the Sayf Yamaani to the dancer.. Later a picture of the individual who ordered the form...and was responsible for moving the Omani capital to Zanzibar in 1840 and thus the interaction with the Great Lakes. Said The Great.
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