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Old 6th January 2021, 03:15 PM   #21
ariel
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Location: Ann Arbor, MI
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My best guess it dates to the 19th century.
History of Balochistan is complex. Balochistan belonged to Afghanistan, but eastern Balochistan was captured by Nader Shah and became part of Iran. After the fall of Durrani dynasty, Balochistan became factually independent, but in the 1870s and especially after the second Afghani war it became part of British India with the exception of Gwadar that belonged to Oman. After the great division of British India in 1948 it was captured by Pakistan. Gwadar was sold to Pakistan in 1958, but even now about a third of Omanis are descendants of Baloch immigrants.

Thus, and using our current geography it may be “ Baloch”, “Afghani” Indian”, “Pakistani” or “ Omani”.

Since I place it in the 19th century it could not have been Pakistani: Pakistan did not exist yet. IMHO, the most correct one would be “Indian” or “Omani”. Further hairsplitting: since these swords are usually attributed(!) to Hyderabad in Sindh, we could attribute it to British India. Although, had it been made before the infamous “ Peccavi” ( I have sinned) by general Napier in 1843, we should call it Sindhi.

Go figure....

However, geography and history aside, it carries both “Indian” and Omani features..
Thus, as we have discussed earlier, we can call it Baloch, Hyderabadi, Sindhi, Indo-Arab etc.

I love these mixes, both geographical and repurposed:-)
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