An immense Khyber sword

[Stasa Katz]

A quick note on the sword we have been discussing. The handle is a bit loose. I am not yet knowledgeable enough to guess what was used for the handle. Elements in handle are a bit loose but not to point of falling apart.

Am a rank amateur so am not going to try and tamper with this myself.

As an illustration of how fluid the entire region is, here is a snap shot of one man's career that matches how these blades can travel.

I am sure my blade is not as old as the First Afghan War. I did think it interesting to offer a description of one Afghan noble who chose to assist the British in a variety of capacities. He and his family and many of their soldiers went into exile and lived on British ruled territory far from their home territory in Afghanistan.

There must have been a great and complex array of blades in their hands. And in India, if they needed to take their weapons for repair to Indian smithies, this would have added yet further to the complexity--and left questions for collectors.

There was an Afghan noble who lived in Paghman, near Kabul, and chose to support Shah Shuja , who was placed on the throne by the British and the Army of the Indus, during the First Afghan War. (1841)

Later, this Afghan noble threw in his lot with the British and followed Sales back to EIO controlled territory and later settled near Meerut.

Lady Sales, in Kabul ('Cabul') mentions him.

I observe I have mentioned the Laird of Pughman (aka Paghman), a sobriquet applied to a good man, and a true one to the Shah and us. His proper name was the Syud Mahommed Khan, and for the good service he did in the Kohistan with Sale's force (Lady Sales husband), he obtained the honorary title of Jan Fishan Khan, or the nobleman who is the exterminator of his sovereign's enemies. It is a difficult sentence to render into English. Jan means life; Fishan, heedless of the life of your enemies, Khan, a lord or a nobleman...(quoted from A Journal of the Disasterss in Afghanistan by Lady Florentia Sales, page 29-30, Tantalion Press)

Jan Fishan Khan gave assistance to Robert Sales' forces. The British granted him lands and an income in an area near Meerut in what is now Northern India. Later he and his troops assisted the British in 1857

Imperial Gazetteer of India

http://books.google.com/books?id=xnd...ed=0CBkQ6AEwAQ

Wikipedia

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&hl=en&ct=clnk

There must have been a vast variety of blades in the hands of this clan chief and his retainers. Khan's career would have spanned territory held by the Afghans near Kabul, his flight would have taken place through either the Bolan or Khyber Pass, through Sikh held turf, and then south into what is now Northern India...and all these areas with different weapons and forges.

All interesting for collectors. Thank you all again for your time.

[Lew]

John

The thickness of the T shaped spine is very questionable in my opinion this is a mid to late 20th century blade. See pics below notice the quality of the T spine on an older example. Btw if you call up the bidding you will see it was a private listing . Why would you need a private listing when eBay protects the bidders with code names?

[Jim McDougall]

John, as I earlier noted the discussion has proven most interesting despite the tinged adversity concerning this weapon and the circumstances of its sale and your acquisition. I'd like to say that I strongly disagree with your reference to yourself as an 'amateur'. Your attention to detail in further researching this weapon and the history of the regions and events which may be applicable is most admirable and remarkable. To me that is the mark of a much more seasoned collector, and quite honestly an approach I wish more collectors pursued. Thank you for sharing these results here as this kind of text is in my opinion very much as important as the details concerning the physical character and attributes of the item, and well placed in discussion. As for the commercial politics concerned I consider them mostly a trite distraction and better handled privately.
Nicely done John, and thank you!

All the best,
Jim

[Stasa Katz]

Possibility of Peshkabz/Choora blades in Sindhi territory?

There is a description of some old weapons provided by Christopher Ondaatje, in his book Sind Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Sir Richard Francis Burton.

http://www.google.com/search?q=chris...=1&btnG=Search

Alas, he gives no photograph of the items.

Mr Ondaatje made his visit in 1996. He appreciates blades. This quoted portion illustrates how one cannot just buy and take.

Mr Mohammed Kasim was the brother of the owner of Abid Jewellers in Karachi. I heard that he had three interesting Sindhi daggers: two Talpur (pre conquest by General Napier-JA) ivory handled weapons with gold filigree work on the spine and base of the handles; and a very old fakir crutch with a slender dagger fitted into the top part of the crutch. Making any sort of purchase from him wasn't easy, however. There were a lot of questions. Who was I? How had I been referred to Mr Kasim?

Finally, he agreed to show me the daggers. But they were not on the premises...

"Mr Kasim proved to be a gentle, humorous man..The Talpur daggers, one large and one medium size, had obviously belonged to a rich family. The other, the crutch of a fakir, would have belonged to a poor man with some need to protect himself.

"Mr. Kasim was asking far too much money, but these were rare items.

"I really wanted the daggers. I wanted the fakir's crutch too, but thought I would never get it out of Pakistan....

"When I returned to Canada, I learned that the two Sindhi daggers were Peshkabz daggers. Both have hilts of walrus ivory and watered blades of dark steel. The hilts have enameled gold enrichments intricately carved on both sides. They have no sheaths, which in the olden days, would have been of leather embroidered with silk and enriched with gold or silver enameled mounts.

"It is the character of their ornamentation rather than their shape that indicates that the two sindhi daggers were more persian than Afghan. The intricate engraving was also much more ornate than is usually found in India. Although my daggers had no precious stones, a great part of the treasure of the amirs consisted in the rubies, diamonds, pearls and emeralds with which their daggers, words and matchlocks were adorned. Persian goldsmiths were engaged at court in enamelling and damscening, and were renowned for their artistry....

pp 286 -297

Gentlemen, thank you again.

My curiosity began shortly after 9-11 when I tried to understand the predicament we were in.

Became interested in the region, the people and then, slowly, became curious about the knives.

One bias of mine is I like straight bladed knives. No disputing matters of taste.

For great good fun, there's a book by Alice Albinia entitled Empires of the Indus, published just recently, and easy to find.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008...travel.history

Albinia travelled the course of the Indus, post 9-11, mostly in Pakistan, with side trips into India (Punjab and Ladakh) ending at Mt Kailash. She gives ample information about Sindh, the Punjab on both sides of the post Partition border, and a very long visit into the Khyber, and on both sides of the Durand line. She showed admirable capacity to travel there on the region's own terms.

Albinia does not directly describe knife culture - by that time the automatic rifle has dominated - but she does give us context and a lot of the regions history and archeology -- all of which would have shaped cultures - and it is the cultures that produce the blades we discuss here.