Kattara restoration

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by spiral

Hi Kuber,

I see Ibrahim hasbt found the time or inclination to repley around your Kattara yet, So ill offer a little help.

There are 6 types of Omani Swords.


1.The Old Omani Battle Sword. Battle Sword. Straight and stiff.
2.The Curved Kattara. Merchant and Slavers Sword. Curved. Quite rigid..
3.The Omani Dancing Sword. Pageants and Salutations ...The Dynastic Item...Dynasty started 1744 but sword would have taken time to promote perhaps 15 years. Straight and very flexible.
4. The straight bladed fighting Kattara
5. The straight bladed kattara fake made by dodgy Omani dealers in the souk.
6. The Omani Fighting Shamshir.

Spiral

Salaams Spiral,
No not at all ... Ive been hugely busy on a completely different subject but I apologise if you were waiting ..

You have listed 6 swords of Oman. There are, however, not 6. Your first three are correct... with the slight proviso that the 1744 and the 15 year thing was me rather thinking aloud as it is now possible that the dancing sword may have been tuned in by the later ruler in 1804 (Said Bin Sultan...) and it may have taken a while to spread countrywide ...from its base in the Askeris or Palace Guard possession.

Your number;

4. Is non existant.
5. Is a non starter since it was only since 1970 that thousands of these rehilts have been sold as Tourist items in the souk... German/ Ethiopian Rehilts.
6. Is clearly imprecise since in Oman the Shamshiir was a badge of office reserved almost singly for Royalty / very important people.

The trouble is like many objects of this nature it is extremely difficult to narrow it down as to start point. That being said we have despite the difficulties engineered some very logical and often well backed up theories.

The major document apart from the one in my head (comprising about 30 years of personal research) is the Richardson and Dorr double volume ...but even that and others plus documentation from prestigious places like Icoman and Omanisilver dot com and the wealth of museums in Muscat are sprinkled with imprecise detail.. they never say for example : This sword was invented in WXYZ or this battle saw the following weapons deployed.... it simply does not exist in the archives so far studied.

One of my main resources is the Funun which wasn't even written down; such is the nature of passed down parents-to-offspring of Omani history via pageantry, pantomime, singing and poetry.... and for additional good reasons since, in the old days hardly anyone here could read and write !! Vital background in this respect should be studied at http://www.octm-folk.gov.om/meng/rhythem.asp


Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.