Afghan Pulowar blade type?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by ariel

Ibrahiim,
Please note that on of the two swords shown by me has an arsenal stamp and another does not ( it's other side is also blank, I was just saving space). Also look at post #64: there is such a bewildering variety of these swords that any idea of them being "regulation" or even made at the same place becomes improbable. Also note the absense of a langet on one of them. And, BTW, do we really know that ANY of them were made at Mashin Khana? Any documentary evidence of an approved design, manufacturing order or other written confirmation?



In any research endeavor assembly and verification of facts go first. Only if the facts are strong enough can one summarize them into a plausible idea. In this case it was done in reverse with fully predictable results. Reminds me of an old story about a renown sniper: each and every bullet hole was right in the center of a target. Only he shot first, and drew the " bullseye" around the hole later:-)

From http://www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/afgh.../mashin-khana/ I Quote"
Mashin Khana

The state arsenal and factory in Kabul had a narrow gauge “portable railway” supplied by Leeds company John Fowler & Co.1 Fowler produced 60 cm gauge portable light railway equipment, initially under an agreement with French engineer Paul Decauville.

The Kabul factory known as the Mashin Khana (machine house) was established by Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, with Englishman Thomas Salter Pyne as his engineering advisor. Pyne had previously been an overseas representative of Fowler, and later received British and Afghan honours for diplomatic work.

Books could probably be written both about the factory, which was the amir’s attempt to buy-in an industrial revolution, and about Salter Pyne himself. As it is, little has turned up about the railway so far."Unquote.

You describe well in your second paragraph the situation in and around the farcical accounting (corruption) in the Mashin Khana which having been imposed on the Kabul and Afghanistan population as a sort of social experiment actually destroyed almost entirely the Bazaar and hand made processes built up after generations of development ... On reflection and having been in Kabul I recall being completely puzzled at the expectation of seeing masses of hand made items of artisans down the ages and being confronted with the skeletal remains of what was left... On closer inspection what was left was virtually nothing...some hand made carpets from distant regions ...the odd carving...antiques that were 99% junk...and on researching why it became clear that to a huge degree it was all gone..and the state factories had done their job long ago...and of course decades of strife in a war torn country. The Mashin Khana destroyed much of the hand made objects entirely.

I would agree there is probably no trace of any records...The Mashin Khana itself has gone...but in its day I can well see how daggers and anything else that could be sucked into the whirlpool of state Factory stamping or production was in fact done... even those employed in hand made wares were absorbed into the Grand State Enterprize so even if they could it was too late and those capable of passing on the expertise were prevented from doing so ...and soon it would be lost.

This happened to weapons first since the initial objective was weapons of war...then all things that could be made by machines fell under the hammer so to speak...Minting of coinage was among the first to be absorbed and daggers and swords were very much targets of mechanised tools ...That however, did not mean some sort of link between the daggers you mention and the newer swords which looked like modern bayonet style of the day...The factory was however well capable of rejigging with modern machine made hilts and issuing stamps on anything which could be stamped!! That's what happened and no development or design sprang from one dagger to the next.... Only the common stamp; The dreaded Mashin Khana !

See https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=...843799&cad=rjt

and http://www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/afgh.../mashin-khana/