Pulwar sword with engraved blade

[Gavin Nugent]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

The three dots are indeed significant and interestingly have key talismanic symbolism as Ibrahiim has noted. His observations on the four circles added around the brass center dot are most compelling regarding the apotropaic for Fatima ('five in your eye') which protects against the evil eye.

Returning to the three dots, in Central Asian context, these occur consistently and are typically regarded as the 'cintamani' or the symbol used by Tamerlane, with varying descriptions of thief origins. While the term 'cintamani' is often characterized by an additional three wavy lines and supposed to represent the spots of the leopard and stripes of the tiger and used as motif on textiles of these regions..the cintamani term is widely use for this three dot motif.

I have seen these three dots notably on back straps of Central Asian shamshirs and other weapons of these regions and seem invariably to refer to Tamerlane and this particular heritage .

It is interesting just how far the 3 dots spread.

I have the 3 dot inlay at the base of a very fine Malay Bugis Chief Keris in my collection and on of those swords that I have sold they were seen on these Afghan sabres types, a Tulwar with a Persian blade, other Tulwar and also including early Syrian Shamshir.
Most recently sold, now with members here, a Moro Kampilan and an Achang/Yunnan Dah of very high quality....the motif has travelled far and wide....one thing in common with all of these regions is the Islamic faith.

Whilst Timur was influential and being well documented as having this arrangement as his banner, I think Ibrahiim is on the right path with what he notes above.

Gavin