ID Omani Jambiya

[kahnjar1]

Hi Steve.
This dagger is described by the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh KSA, as a DHARIA dagger known as "Muqaffala" or "Mufarragha". The area origin is Western Saudi, Asir/Hijaz region. There is a book published by the K F Center, titled Weapons of the Islamic World/Swords and Armour. It illustrates an exhibition by them in 1991 and this type of dagger is illustrated.
I should also add that the Omani and Yemeni daggers shown in this exhibition are described as just that....daggers... and the term "Jambiya" and "Khanjar" do not feature. It would appear that the names used in the countries of origin are perhaps localised and probaly more likely to be correct. ....Omani=Khanjar and Yemen=Jambiya. Only those who live in those countries would know the true description applied. Early authors such as Cameron Stone may possibly have used some descriptive licence, which in more recent times will come to refined or corrected.
Regards Stu

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Hi Steve.
This dagger is described by the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh KSA, as a DHARIA dagger known as "Muqaffala" or "Mufarragha". The area origin is Western Saudi, Asir/Hijaz region. There is a book published by the K F Center, titled Weapons of the Islamic World/Swords and Armour. It illustrates an exhibition by them in 1991 and this type of dagger is illustrated.
I should also add that the Omani and Yemeni daggers shown in this exhibition are described as just that....daggers... and the term "Jambiya" and "Khanjar" do not feature. It would appear that the names used in the countries of origin are perhaps localised and probaly more likely to be correct. ....Omani=Khanjar and Yemen=Jambiya. Only those who live in those countries would know the true description applied. Early authors such as Cameron Stone may possibly have used some descriptive licence, which in more recent times will come to refined or corrected.
Regards Stu

Salaams khanjar 1 (Only those who live in those countries would know the true description applied.)

~The long debate about name of weapon etc etc is a complicated issue. However I dont think we are at the point of simply calling them all daggers... They are Khanjars in Oman and Jambiyya in Saudia and Yemen. Otherwise we would be calling everything a Knife... or the long ones all "Swords" .

~Khanjar is an Omani word; Jambiyya isnt. The linguistic specialists will probably look to Hemyaritic or Saudia or possibly Swahili for the Jambiyya word source. Whats in a name...? quite a lot I suspect... however annoying !
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi

[kahnjar1]

Salaams Ibrahiim,
I was addressing Archers question as to the name for HIS dagger.....Dharia. As you will see, my comment of what OTHER daggers were described as in the Exhibition catalogue/book, was qualified by the names used in Oman and Yemen to describe their daggers....ie Oman=Khanjar....Yemen=Jambiya. As to the origins of the various terms, I leave for some other thread which may appear in the future, rather than confuse the original reason for THIS thread.. .

[A.alnakkas]

Salam Ibrahim,

I disagree. Jambiya is an abreviation from an arab word done by collectors. The original word is JANBIYA or Jannabiya and it means (the weapon tuck on the side) Anyone speaking arabic wouldnt have a hard time knowing what Janbiya is.

As for Khanjar, I disagree, infact I dont think its an Arab word. It is likely a persian word but I am not 100% certain. The word khanjar, unlike Janbiya is used by the following: Kurds, Persians, Turks (Hancer) northern Arabs. While Janbiya seems to be more focused on Yemen and the south Arabian places.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by A.alnakkas

Salam Ibrahim,

I disagree. Jambiya is an abreviation from an arab word done by collectors. The original word is JANBIYA or Jannabiya and it means (the weapon tuck on the side) Anyone speaking arabic wouldnt have a hard time knowing what Janbiya is.

As for Khanjar, I disagree, infact I dont think its an Arab word. It is likely a persian word but I am not 100% certain. The word khanjar, unlike Janbiya is used by the following: Kurds, Persians, Turks (Hancer) northern Arabs. While Janbiya seems to be more focused on Yemen and the south Arabian places.

Salaams A.alnakkas: That means 3 million Omani people have got it wrong then...? I will just go out and tell them Lofty ~ not be a moment...

Your detail on Janbiyya is of course perfectly correct though Khanjar appears to be Arabic.. perhaps a local Arabic word here...It occurs in the Funoon from an ancient dance completed with Khanjar so it goes back to 1400 years at least... The Khanjar did not appear in India til 500 years ago according to museum references and it is not an original Indian word.

The Khanjar and the Jambiyya (janbiya) are different styles clouded in time ...locked in design... from different countries.

Omanis dont have Jambiyyas and Yemenis dont have Khanjars. They dont have them and they dont use the words to describe their weapons. They do however know what each is and what both words mean !

Oman, however, uses Khanjar to describe Omani Khanjars and Yemen uses Jambiyya to describe Yemeni Jambiyyas.

We are all happy with that.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[A.alnakkas]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams A.alnakkas: That means 3 million Omani people have got it wrong then...? I will just go out and tell them Lofty ~ not be a moment...

Yes actually, they are wrong. The word Khanjar is a persian word. Like many many (even pre-islamic) persian words that were adopted by the arabs. This is nothing new.

The word cannot be reduced to any form like all arabic words. The only issue I have currently is not being able to back this up with academic research but then again nothing (Academic) can be found on the net. But I managed to find lists that include khanjar as one of the many words adopted from Persian. Regardless, I am a university student and we have Arabic professors, I'll get academic info soon just so you know am not pulling this one out of nowhere. :P

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Your detail on Janbiyya is of course perfectly correct though Khanjar appears to be Arabic.. perhaps a local Arabic word here...It occurs in the Funoon from an ancient dance completed with Khanjar so it goes back to 1400 years at least... The Khanjar did not appear in India til 500 years ago according to museum references and it is not an original Indian word.

I wasnt suggesting that Omani's use the term Janbiya. Rather that the term Janbiya (derived from jnb) is a pure arab word used by southern Arabs (fine, excluding omanis :-))

Also, whether India has this word or not is irrelevant since Indians have been adopting persian words aswell.

Now how about the Kurds and the Turks? or do they adopt the term from Oman?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by A.alnakkas

Yes actually, they are wrong. The word Khanjar is a persian word. Like many many (even pre-islamic) persian words that were adopted by the arabs. This is nothing new.

The word cannot be reduced to any form like all arabic words. The only issue I have currently is not being able to back this up with academic research but then again nothing (Academic) can be found on the net. But I managed to find lists that include khanjar as one of the many words adopted from Persian. Regardless, I am a university student and we have Arabic professors, I'll get academic info soon just so you know am not pulling this one out of nowhere. :P



I wasnt suggesting that Omani's use the term Janbiya. Rather that the term Janbiya (derived from jnb) is a pure arab word used by southern Arabs (fine, excluding omanis :-))

Also, whether India has this word or not is irrelevant since Indians have been adopting persian words aswell.

Now how about the Kurds and the Turks? or do they adopt the term from Oman?

Salaams A.alnakkas ~ You may be right ?... I dont know Lofty you are the expert on Arabic Linguistics. I am still trying to fathom out where the word Kattara originated but I am not losing sleep about it. Passage of time ~ cross polination of linguistic terms ~ tribal tectonics~ incidental and accidental transmission of words through trade, war, geo political influence ~ who knows?
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi

[A.alnakkas]

Salams Ibrahim (or is it Peter?) No, I am not suggesting that I am expert in arab linguistics, I studied it, but am no expert.

Kattara has more chance of being arabic then Khanjar.