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Originally Posted by estcrh
The hilt could be Sryian or of Arab / Bedouin origin. The blade appears to be a ribbon type mechanical pattern welded steel and not watered / damascus steel.
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The term 'Damascus' steel has been corrupted to cover the pattern welded steel made by mechanically welding layers of different carbon content steels and twisting and folding them into eye catching patterns. the swords that come out of syria now are pattern welded. sometimes they even cheat and put an acid etched 'pattern' on a cheap mono steel blade.
the old proper watered steel is wootz, a crucible steel, the pattern is inherent in the steel itself and take skill to forge it as slightly too hot and you lose the pattern, too cold and you can't work it. new real wootz is essentially unavailable, the art of making and working it lost as well. damascus stopped using it a very long time ago. modern monosteels are better for weapons in either case, but they don't look so good. search on wootz for more info (try also bulat as that's a russian version of wootz...)