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Old 10th November 2022, 03:00 AM   #2
Jim McDougall
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
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This is an excellent synopsis of the Oman/Zanzibar situation in the early years of the 19th century, and toward the weapons used in these areas, in particular the conical hilted long sword simply termed the Omani sayf.

The long swords with long cylindrical hilt used in these dance ceremonies became recognized as dynastic symbols, and seems led to the favor of swords of this design to be worn publicly as a sword of office and status by officials and merchants.

There has been a great deal of consternation on the confusing of the dance oriented versions of these long swords with examples made for public wear with substantial European blades which would be fully viable for defensive or combat use.

The sayf yemani (battle sword) has remained outside this confusion and as you have noted, provided certain influences factored into the conical hilt forms which became dynastic forms leaving the traditional design that had been in place many centuries.

Images are of the sayf yemani/battle sword of long traditional history in Oman, primarily with Ibathi in Nizwa interior.

The Omani long sword, sayf as worn by Omani gentlemen as sword of office, status and dynastic symbol of Said.

The Omani/Zanzibari 'kittareh' with curved blade most commonly worn by officials, merchants and slave factors in their expeditions into the interior, however clearly the long swords were present as well.

These are the primary swords in this context, and I look forward the more on the khanjhars and their hilt designs.

Hopefully there will be images of the dance versions of these sayfs which will illustrate the character of the thin blades used in the Funun.

While these have been discussed on a recent thread and of course in threads some time ago, it will be great to have these weapons discussed further here to clarify their character.
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