Mysterious Afghan Military Sabre

ariel · 18th June 2022, 09:50 PM

This is just a generic Afghani saber with a handle developed from the colonial British bayonet for Brunswick rifle 1837 and 1841 patterns. They were developed initially for the Nepalese military and the main difference between them was that the Brunswick bayonets had a hollow all-metal handle to attach to the rifle, while the Afghani variant of the same " colonial" pattern had a solid mixed metal/wooden or bone handle.
The defining word in the name is " colonial": Brits themselves did not use them, but the " natives" could use them both as rifle-attached bayonets or as short swords, even with a D-guard. The earliest photo example we are aware of was dated to 1879 and used a short straight blade of European style, likely made locally .
Later on, when Abdurrahman started restoring Afgani military post 2nd Anglo-Afghani War, and Mashin Khana in Kabul was rebuilt post 1897, different workshops in Afghanistan were producing short swords with "Khyber knife" blades and the above handles. Those can be legitimately call "military Khybers" ( not the "regulation" ones because there were no state regulation criteria and they all were of different sizes) , but the earliest examples ( see above) as well as the saber posted here, have nothing in common with the " Khybers" (Selavah), Real Khybers had totally different blade profile that cannot be confused with anything else and emphatically never had curved saber-like blade configuration.
Afghanistan was in a rearmament frenzy just before Abdurrahman and until Amanulla. That was the reason for the appearance of varied models of bladed weapons, some of rather bizarre form that were short-lived ( see above) to the final appearance of regulation sabers fully imitating Western examples.

Thus, around 1920-1930's Afghani military finally became armament-like almost equal to the European armies of the early 19 century, which at that time relegated sabers to the status of ceremonial baubles and were arming themselves with airplanes and tanks:-)))

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18th June 2022, 09:50 PM	#13
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	This is just a generic Afghani saber with a handle developed from the colonial British bayonet for Brunswick rifle 1837 and 1841 patterns. They were developed initially for the Nepalese military and the main difference between them was that the Brunswick bayonets had a hollow all-metal handle to attach to the rifle, while the Afghani variant of the same " colonial" pattern had a solid mixed metal/wooden or bone handle. The defining word in the name is " colonial": Brits themselves did not use them, but the " natives" could use them both as rifle-attached bayonets or as short swords, even with a D-guard. The earliest photo example we are aware of was dated to 1879 and used a short straight blade of European style, likely made locally . Later on, when Abdurrahman started restoring Afgani military post 2nd Anglo-Afghani War, and Mashin Khana in Kabul was rebuilt post 1897, different workshops in Afghanistan were producing short swords with "Khyber knife" blades and the above handles. Those can be legitimately call "military Khybers" ( not the "regulation" ones because there were no state regulation criteria and they all were of different sizes) , but the earliest examples ( see above) as well as the saber posted here, have nothing in common with the " Khybers" (Selavah), Real Khybers had totally different blade profile that cannot be confused with anything else and emphatically never had curved saber-like blade configuration. Afghanistan was in a rearmament frenzy just before Abdurrahman and until Amanulla. That was the reason for the appearance of varied models of bladed weapons, some of rather bizarre form that were short-lived ( see above) to the final appearance of regulation sabers fully imitating Western examples. Thus, around 1920-1930's Afghani military finally became armament-like almost equal to the European armies of the early 19 century, which at that time relegated sabers to the status of ceremonial baubles and were arming themselves with airplanes and tanks:-)))