Hi Guys,
As always I was too short! Let me add some facts:
First as Ariel said these swords don't appear in eastern collections... strange.
Second about the pommel and even the hilt, well you can compare the pommel to any dome or minaret from North Africa to Persia and India.
The ribbed domes are not specific to Central Asia. It's easy to check, you have plenty of books on architecture.
Third Yemeni in Bukhara, since the Arab conquest Yemeni are all over the place from North Africa up to India and even China! They were very influencial in religious studies. So Yemeni in Bukhara is not exceptional and not a proof that they brought back some swords to Yemen.
Fourth spiral design is found also on Ottoman scabbards and spiral banding on Indian swords most of the time to wrap up some textiles. So there is no proof that Bukharen invented this design...
Last two men who are not newbies commented these swords as yemeni, Robert Hales and Robert Elgood (he says Hijazi).
And yes I agree with you swords have no geographic boundaries and I like this discussion. The last example is really cool, from Solingen to India and ending up in Yemen...
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