Kattara for comments

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams Forum..
This webpage should perhaps be viewed as it may be related and shows Topkapi exhibits; users.stlcc.edu/mfuller/turk/topkapiarms.html

I swear I have seen an Abbasid sword about 8th or 9th C with a dot to the blade tip...??

Ah perhaps I can slide in a quote from Jim on this note with bold letters by me ~
"In looking into references in Yucel, I was also amazed that I had apparantly missed so much attention to the presence of gold filled holes in many of these blades, including of course those believed to be Umayyad and Abbasid. Apparantly, according to Yucel, these occur in numbers of one to seven dots, and often are placed strategically next to inscriptions or devotional passages as seen in a number of the plates. He claims these gold dots are to give the swordsman good luck, which is of course a simplified reference to the much more complex talismanic applications which may be present.
I would note that many of these swords were from Mamluk provenance before entering the Ottoman armouries, which may explain the presence of this affectation found on some swords in North African sphere, using usually copper filled holes. The placing of these often near the blade tip is in the same fashion seen on many of the blades in Topkapi, though they are often but one of numerous other dots on the blade. Unquote


Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.