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Originally Posted by kahnjar1
Hi Jim,
I should point out that it is not the curved Omani sword at issue here, but the straight fighting bladed Omani hilted sword, about which Gavin and Ibrahiim are at loggerheads. I do not like the word FAKE particularly, but since it has been well used to describe these so-called "nonexistant" swords made by suppliers to the tourist market, then the word should also sit squarely on Khanjars which are being modern made and sold at exhorbitant prices to the unwitting tourist. These also would then be classified as FAKES.
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Salaams Khanjar 1 ~You write with a bitter taste in your pen...no?
It is a fact that the two styles are called Sayf or Saif for the straight dancer and Kattarah for the great curved sword. Im not sure if the collectors care one way or the other what they are called in Oman and I gave up worrying about that ages ago.
Be advised that ethnographic arms generally applies to collectors of such weapons that are not in vogue/newly made/used/ today... For antiques part of their charm may in fact be because they are artefacts used in battles before... a long time ago. In fact a lot of collectors tend to ringfence more modern weapons because of this fact. Weapons in some countries, however, are made as a continuum of that process i.e. They never fell from grace... they are still worn in honour of the forefathers and they are still made new today. A new Omani Khanjar expertly made will no doubt in future become a collectors item and joins the long respected and honourable process of antiquity in due course. This is the peculiar position in Oman.
Naturally many Omani weapons are heirloom items which almost never get sold but are passed down the family line... they quite often come in for repair but don't usually appear for sale. Equally local people also demand brand new pieces... made in the time honoured way with the same tools and by expert craftsmen who learned the trade from their fathers and who still even use the same old tools. On top of that there are some workshops in India and now in China that do cheap copies and which also do appear mixed all together in the souks in particular
Sharjah and Muscat ~ mixed with stuff from the Yemen and Saudia as well as Syria and as those countries come under pressure internally the percentage of stuff from these regions climbs ..
I estimate the level of non Omani gear in Muttrah is somewhere in the region of 80 to 90% but in Sharjah it's different and worse .. The vast bulk of it is non UAE..with authentic and mixed fake work eminating from Afghanistan, India and China... and everywhere else ... about 99% fake.
I use the word "fake" and I mean it. A sword deliberately cross hilted after 1970 for selling onto the tourist market with a 19th C. blade (or any other age) from the Red Sea regions with a hilt of Omani style and sold as an Omani Sword is a Fake. A khanjar made for the Omani market isn't. A Khanjar made as a deliberate fake aimed at hoodwinking tourists is.
It is a matter of experience...Countless hours spent in the old workshops of The Baatinah, Nizwa, Sanau and Muscat coupled with the experience of many decades studying and talking to the makers... it rather undermines your case; The fact that a few fake Khanjars may be encountered in Sharjah Souk (or other) is unrelated to the canny, crafty way the Muttrah sword, cross hilting, situation has inserted itself since 1970. Thats life.
What is important is not to grumble about it...
... but conversely to inform this important international panel of collectors so that they may be aware of it. I mean you do realise that buying in any souk it must be down to the individual not to get stupidly ripped off ! The best defence against that surely is knowledge..and Forum is honourably packed with that.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.