Billao for comment

Martin Lubojacky · 23rd February 2014, 05:28 PM

Hi Claus and welcome to the forum,
Hi vandoo,

I think it is simplification to call alll Somali daggers just billao. "Somali Federative Republic" and its surrounding is big, consisting of many different "clans". This dagger is new, but, I would say it comes from differenet family - probably "tooray daggers". In Ethiopia I saw old pieces of this kind

Regards,
Martin

Martin Lubojacky · 23rd February 2014, 05:44 PM

As far as "blued triangles" on the blade are concerned, it is not anything exceptional - at least four of the blades below were blackened too

Martin Lubojacky · 23rd February 2014, 05:53 PM

Hi Claus and sorry - I did not look properly at the pictures and concerning those triangles I thought you were speaking just about the blackenig. I have not see such triangles on Somali weapons before - this is for the first time ...

Claus · 23rd February 2014, 10:07 PM

Thanks for your welcome

After doing some more research and finding many more pictures from gilles,jile, billao,bilaawe ( many forms of writing ) and tooray daggers it seems to me that the traditional styles more and more mixed in the newer made daggers.
@ Martin Lubojacky: You're right it's simplification because we're talking about a big territory where this dagger may come from, so maybe the dagger can classify as northeast african dagger.

In "SomaliNetforums" i found another name for somalian daggers, "abley", but unfortunately no further information in which region, from which Clan/Tribe the name is used or what are the differences between the tooray and abley daggers. You know more?
About the blued triangles. I now have found an image from a past eBay auction with an Afar type dagger with some similar patterns.
I'd like to show it but I don't know if it's getting problems with the image rights

Regards,
Claus

23rd February 2014, 05:28 PM	#1
Martin Lubojacky Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Czech Republic Posts: 843	Hi Claus and welcome to the forum, Hi vandoo, I think it is simplification to call alll Somali daggers just billao. "Somali Federative Republic" and its surrounding is big, consisting of many different "clans". This dagger is new, but, I would say it comes from differenet family - probably "tooray daggers". In Ethiopia I saw old pieces of this kind Regards, Martin Attached Images

23rd February 2014, 05:44 PM	#2
Martin Lubojacky Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Czech Republic Posts: 843	As far as "blued triangles" on the blade are concerned, it is not anything exceptional - at least four of the blades below were blackened too Attached Images

23rd February 2014, 10:07 PM	#4
Claus Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: Germany Posts: 8	:) Thanks for your welcome After doing some more research and finding many more pictures from gilles,jile, billao,bilaawe ( many forms of writing ) and tooray daggers it seems to me that the traditional styles more and more mixed in the newer made daggers. @ Martin Lubojacky: You're right it's simplification because we're talking about a big territory where this dagger may come from, so maybe the dagger can classify as northeast african dagger. In "SomaliNetforums" i found another name for somalian daggers, "abley", but unfortunately no further information in which region, from which Clan/Tribe the name is used or what are the differences between the tooray and abley daggers. You know more? About the blued triangles. I now have found an image from a past eBay auction with an Afar type dagger with some similar patterns. I'd like to show it but I don't know if it's getting problems with the image rights Regards, Claus

23rd February 2014, 05:53 PM	#3
Martin Lubojacky Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Czech Republic Posts: 843	Hi Claus and sorry - I did not look properly at the pictures and concerning those triangles I thought you were speaking just about the blackenig. I have not see such triangles on Somali weapons before - this is for the first time ...