Hi B.I,
Medieval Islamic Swords and Swordmaking, Kindi’s treatise ‘On swords and their kinds’, by Robert G. Hoyland and Brian Gilmour, 2006.
On page 54 I have found this. ‘Kindi now lists the five sub catagories of muwallad or indigenous swords, which are given as the Khurasani (north Iranian), Egyptian, Damascan, Basran, and a group of other less numerous types, including Baghdadi and Kufan. He says that the iron was worked and forged in these places, which in this context must also mean local production of the crucible steel. Kindi’s comments that steel-making and sword production had been carried out in ‘olden times’ at Damascus, suggesting much earlier production here, Possible in the late pre-Islamic and/or early Islamic period. He later states that it had more or less ceased by his time’.
There may be other references to Persian iron production and sword making in the book, which is translations of what Kindi wrote in the 9th AD century. The question is, if you consider Khurasani to be part of Persia in the period you are interested in.
Jens
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