Mysterious sword from Elgood's book

Rivkin · 23rd October 2006, 10:21 PM

I think Baburname can not offer us anything new on Shashka/Buchara sabre relationship, something we I think will discuss many more times

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What I was trying to do by my post if first of all bring examples of trade relationships in the region and how armour and weapons from one place would get to the other place.
The second thing was something I have been trying to do for a very long time - with Ottoman empire we destinguish between Syrian, Balkan, Trabzon, Anatolian styles, not even to mention the whole african aspect. With tiny Georgia we see the differences between the west and the east, between Imerethi and Tbilisi.
But when it comes to colossal Persian Empire all we see in museums is "persian shamshir, XVIIIth century", or "Zand sword" or "Safavid sword", or may be something with such vague as Aryan. I think we need to put extra effort to be way more precise than this. Where it was made ? Is it characteristic for a certain part of Persia or for a certain tribe ?
And here is a good example - if we believe in the source we can reasonably state that the armour of Shah Abbas was made in Circassia. While it is no part of Persia, it nevertheless makes our knowledge of Persian armour more specific. Hopefully one day we will be able to identify weapons and patterns specific for Azeris, Kurds, Georgians, Armenian swordmakers, Arabs and so on and so on.

23rd October 2006, 10:21 PM	#10
Rivkin Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 655	I think Baburname can not offer us anything new on Shashka/Buchara sabre relationship, something we I think will discuss many more times . What I was trying to do by my post if first of all bring examples of trade relationships in the region and how armour and weapons from one place would get to the other place. The second thing was something I have been trying to do for a very long time - with Ottoman empire we destinguish between Syrian, Balkan, Trabzon, Anatolian styles, not even to mention the whole african aspect. With tiny Georgia we see the differences between the west and the east, between Imerethi and Tbilisi. But when it comes to colossal Persian Empire all we see in museums is "persian shamshir, XVIIIth century", or "Zand sword" or "Safavid sword", or may be something with such vague as Aryan. I think we need to put extra effort to be way more precise than this. Where it was made ? Is it characteristic for a certain part of Persia or for a certain tribe ? And here is a good example - if we believe in the source we can reasonably state that the armour of Shah Abbas was made in Circassia. While it is no part of Persia, it nevertheless makes our knowledge of Persian armour more specific. Hopefully one day we will be able to identify weapons and patterns specific for Azeris, Kurds, Georgians, Armenian swordmakers, Arabs and so on and so on.