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Old 31st May 2013, 04:38 PM   #38
Ibrahiim al Balooshi
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Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE
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Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi
Salaams all Update in Muscat.

I have tracked a number of points on the straight flexible dancing sword... The Omani Sayf. This is for confirmation (though it is already agreed by the Museums via another collector and close colleague whom I interviewed in Muscat yesterday) that precisely as I have explained previously the sword is purely for dancing and since its inception at the beginning of the current Albusaid Dynasty which I assume is 1744 though 1799 is also claimed...its role has been in the pageants as described and never... absolutely never as a weapon of war. The key proof is that this weapon was invented to march past and honour the Dynastic Albusaid monarch and not some previous family ruler...Obvious really ! The blade is supposed to be Omani, however, where other occasional foreign neighboring or distant blades appear it makes absolutely no difference to the core theme... Dancing Sword only. I am in the Museums on Tuesday next to collect the proof.
This is therefor simply an update..

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Notes;
List of rulers that have been paraded past by tribesmen using the Straight Omani Sayf;

Al Bu Said Dynasty (1749–Present)
Abu Hilal Ahmad bin Said
10 June 1744
15 December 1783

Said bin Ahmad
15 December 1783
1784
Last direct male descendant of Al Bu Said to hold the office of Imam. He abdicated secular power to his son and retired to Rustaq where he died in 1803.

Hamad bin Said
1784
13 March 1792

Sultan bin Ahmad
13 March 1792
20 November 1804

Salim I bin Sultan and Said II bin Sultan
20 November 1804
14 September 1806
Co-Rulers

Said II bin Sultan
14 September 1806
19 October 1856 Sole Ruler

Thuwaini bin Said
19 October 1856
11 February 1866
Killed

Salim II bin Thuwaini
11 February 1866
3 October 1868
Killed

Azzan bin Qais
3 October 1868
30 January 1871
Killed

Turki bin Said
30 January 1871
4 June 1888

Faisal bin Turki
4 June 1888
9 October 1913
British protectorate imposed on 20 March 1891[28][29]

Taimur bin Feisal
9 October 1913
10 February 1932
Abdicated

Said III bin Taimur
10 February 1932
23 July 1970
Deposed

Qaboos bin Said

23 July 1970
Present
British protectorate ended on 2 December 1971


Salaams All~ The Museums support my long held theory that the Omani Straight Dancing Sword (The Omani Sayf) never saw action as a fighting blade, however, it was and is the Royal chosen form of Dynastic pageantry weapon with which to salute the Albusaid rulers down the ages.... from the start ... 1744.

It appears clear that the hilt transferred from the Kattara (A Ships Merchant, Slave Captains sword) and that the blade was sharpened on both edges and spatulate tipped and given the Terrs Shield in Honour of the Old Omani Battle Swords or the bearers of ... who went before.

The choice of very flexible, shimmering, broadsword was deliberate since the weapon is ideally suited for Royal march past by massed tribesmen and pageant and can be buzzed and thrown in the air and mock fought with relatively safely.

This was not a European import but was produced locally. European swords, moreover, were fighting weapons by definition... The Sayf was not.

Production continues locally today in Mussandam and Salalah for both the local market and the tourists.

The mark of a dancing sword is its ability to bend easily through 90 degrees from the tip and when released springs straight again immediately.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
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