Salaams Jim, Thank you for your timely comments ... In explaining the phenomena of unrecorded unwritten traditions in this way you underline the difficulty of researching in that vacuum... when in fact Omani people not so much tell you what they think you want to hear ...(thus sidestepping the deliberate lie) but are guarded in letting go of the unwritten almost secretive passed down tradition that really only flows from parent to child...Which is why all of the half dozen or so visitors to Oman in the early 19th C were wrong footed on swords.
People, I think, have realised that the added shock of Oman suddenly creaking open the door to modern civilisation in 1970 before which it was absolutely archaic, needs to be considered. There were no museums before that..in fact it was mediaeval in most respects. No schools to speak of other than two small units in Muscat and one in the South but no colleges or Universities or hospitals, clinics, tarmac roads or any sort of infrastructure... Nothing! You got sick ~ you got better ...or you died. Being born alive was down to chance.
The unwritten traditions of the Funun stretch back centuries to the start of the religious structure here in 751.AD . Not only is there evidence that the Sword and Shield were honoured but also Khanjars. The main two sword genres are in the Razha and the Yalhaa but there is another for the Khanjar called the Baraa ..
People simply baulk at the idea of in-use weapons or systems lasting nearly 2,000 years but it is well recorded by the late Anthony North in the first line of his introduction to Islamic Arms (V. and A. publication) ;
Quote''Unlike Western Arms the styles and shapes of Islamic arms did not continually change. Once an Islamic armourer had found a satisfactory design, it was often retained for many centuries." Unquote.
I think it throws people who still cannot perceive that the Old Omani Battle Sword which I have compared with the Abasiid weapon of the 9th C. can have been used as a weapon until very recently. Since the dancing sword owes its very existence to the Old Battle Sword it is crucial to understand its place and I urge readers to view the details ...Please see
The problem is that attempting to find the written word on the Old Omani Battle Sword which must have been used in Battle and traditional dancing in its early days is impossible, except by reverse engineering the entire concept...and where people demand proof ~ a bit of writing perhaps or a body in a grave holding the sword...You are aware that swords were not buried in the Islamic time with bodies... it was ruled against. Since hardly a man could read and write nor was it needed for the traditions where then can the facts be obtained other than reverse engineering and common sense?
The vital ingredients provided by the Funun need to be analysed carefully for clues..My analysis commenced ...in Zanzibar with the secretary to the Rulers Office "H. Ingrams" who pointed my research in the Funun direction noting that it was only the Omani contingent in Zanzibar that used the flexible saif at the pageants... The Manga(Omanis)...in the Funun not the native Africans.
Dancing with swords is as you point out universal but in Oman it has this peculiar link to the current dynasty which commenced in about 1744... but getting to the "silver bullet" section...; When and who ordered the sword to become the heraldic, dynasty, dancing and pageantry sword? That is the elusive point which may never be found...
The indicators are with Said bin Sultan since he instigated other dynastic key issues ... and he had a long balanced rule time of more than a half century.
My impulses seem to be drawn toward Zanzibar for many reasons..Said bin Sultan was the ideas man behind developing Zanzibar as the Omani capital and the slavers sword must have originated if not "from there" certainly "through there" as a hub for slavery. Enter Tippu Tip. The great slave merchant whose slave captains all wore the long hilted Kattara probably a sword developed from the Manding...and with a European single edge and heavy backblade... The Omani Kattara. From this someone devised the design leap onto the Omani Dancing Sword.. The question is who and when?
Tantalizing is the fact that Burton proposed that there were three swords of Zanzibar two of which were certainly not...and one other... The Omani Dancer. Was its first appearance in Zanzibar under Said Bin Sultan... Was Burton right; one out of three??
Unrelated to this is the Shamshiir ... a purebred ... with wootz blade etc and of the Persian style...worn by VVIP and Royalty though as you point out in photographs it was often artistic licence and swords could be switched around..The point is the Shamshiir though it was a great fighting sword blade was dripping in silver and gold on a superb scabbard and hugely expensive; was only a badge of office..These weren't issued en masse to troops of the line...Too expensive thus simply not a chance of that. But badge of Office ...yes.... though in fact all the swords had that attachment...as did the Khanjar. They could all be carried as a Badge of Office. They could not, however, all be carried as weapons.
Amidst all the hooplah on swords in the early 19th C Oman was fairly awash with two other weapons... which announced the demise of blades... The Abu Futtila and the Cannon... i.e. Gunpowder weapons. The first to fall by the wayside was the spear... I believe the next to decline was the old Omani battle Sword but clinging on as a royal hilted weapon well into the present day...I show the present Ruler with one on the site; The Old Omani Battle Sword.
Against this backdrop of blade decline is the concept of the dancing sword ...but that brings the story full circle so, with your permission Sir, I will stop.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.