Thank you Jim for the kind words, but don’t overdo it, or I may end believing in it, and self-delusion is something, which one should avoid.
Jeff, I think you are right, so maybe they skipped proof reading the catalogue, which is a sin, not easily forgiven.
RobT, these tulwar/basket hilts are seen, although not very often, and as Ian writes, they disappeared at one point – only I don’t know when, but I think it must have been early 19th century.
I think the answer to the hilt question must be yes, but I would not be surprised if one was found with another hilt type, as many swords were ‘modified’. Yes it is a Muslim weapon, but could no doubt have been used in other places, as looted weapons were used again, sometimes unchanged, and sometimes rehilted. I don’t know what Sailaba means, but the sword type is from Turkey as you can see below, so the word is maybe Turkish but it could also be Indian. The T spine is an interesting question, and you are right that it mostly is associated with the north, but you must also remember that Turkey fought many wars in the north and traded, by the sea, with south India.
Notice tah the same sword can have different names in the north and in the south, although they mostly are called the same.
The text below is from the homepage of The National Museum, New Delhi, and by using the link you can read more about Indian weapons.
With the establishment of Sultanate and later the Mughal rule in India, the weapon underwent a significant change and we see some unique weapons introduced during the period. The Persian sword Shamsheer, the Arabian Zulfiqar and the Turkish Sailaba also appeared on the scene alongwith the indigenous weapons.
http://www.nationalmuseumindia.org/armour.html