hi jim,
eloquent as ever :-)
artzi did offer a great summary but as the issue keeps cropping up, i thought it would be good to uncover all summaries/glossaries in order to reach a general consensus. holstein/stone/hobson are a good start.
irving from the late 19thC -
pesh qabz - the word is from pesh, front, qabz, grip.
it was a pointed one-edged dagger, having generally a thick straight back to the blade, and a straight handle without a guard; though at times the blade was curved, or even double-curved. the peshqabz is not in the ain i, 110-112, so i presume that it was included under one of the other kinds of dagger, perhaps under kard, a knife, No.34 and fig 28. in egerton i find 23 examples. of these there are 7 straight, 4 curved and 2 double-curved blades; the shape of the rest is not stated.
kard - this was like a butchers knife and kept in a sheath. it was mpore especially the weapon of the afghan. (he cites egrton again, pg 144).
this was the sort of weapon with which, on the 8th oct 1720, mir haidar beg, dughlat, assasinated sayyad husain, mir bakhshi, in the emperors camp between fathpur sikri and amber (jaipur). the author of the jauhar-i-samsam calls the weapon then used a chaqchaqi-i-wilayati. this word is realted to a knife (steinglass, from turkish).
not a great help but its good 19thC account, taken from source and from a studied academic view (irving could read both hindi and persian and had access to much material from both languages, as well as english at the height of orientalism and the asiatic society.
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