Thanks for the photo of the birds and the comments. interesting that the dove and rose pattern reoccurs so often. I've seen it twice before, in the north where the Tajiks prevail. The sword in my photo was given to me in Nangarhar. The family was Pushtun but a lot of them in Nangarhar come from the north. I'm also thinking the earlier comment suggesting that the sword was a private sword modified with a military style hand guard is correct.
I've also got what looks like and ordinary traditional khyber knife but it has a stamp on the blade that I thought was only on military issue. Lots to learn!
