Enfield made Afghani Pulwar

Jim McDougall · 7th November 2016, 03:00 PM

Hi Marcus,
Well reasoned as always, and these puluaors of yours are fascinating. It seems you have been reading 'The Great Game' by Hopkirk, as I recall you noted. These regions were a hotbed of intrigue in those days just as they remain today.
In the 19th century into the early 20th, Afghanistan was actually considered part of India as its Northwest Frontier. It is true that a great deal of diplomatic effort was centered there and Great Britain was subsidizing the development of industry, infrastructure and many military considerations.
The introduction of British weaponry and uniform into the assemblage of Afghan army units was sometimes curious, which included instances of 'Albert' metal helmets and kilts.

As previously mentioned, the Machin Khana factory in Kabul, was engaged in producing British arms under their subsidy and direction. There were likely other workshops and venues also involved in supplying forces there which were outside official channels. These naturally were unrecorded officially so difficult to verify.

This was a situation long well established in the Raj, and many arms came into India without government marks or the ISD (India Stores Dept) stamps. Also, makers indeed produced blades intended to appear to be of British origin (post #12, 'made in EGland, misspell).

The scabbard was no doubt in imitation of British military style, and the carry rings are positioned accordingly, with the chape sleeve tooled with openwork as in many cases of this Afghan style preference. The scabbards of the Afghan military style swords have different carry systems.

There is also no doubt that this hilt was fashioned in these Afghan regions (part of British India) in accordance with traditional motif and design, based on the Persian/Ottoman decorative styles present in Central Asia for over two centuries.

The blade remains the anomaly in whether it was produced in the Enfield factory in England, or indeed produced in one of the quasi-British enterprises using an acquired 'Enfield' stamp, which does not seem far fetched.
The officers and appointed officials would of course have been likely to carry these kinds of amalgamated arms of British military and traditional style in this climate of development and British intervention.

The numbers of British blades mounted in Indian swords is well known, and many of the M1796 blades were indeed captured as mentioned previously resulting in Indian preference for this pattern blade. Most of these instances were many years earlier during the Sikh wars etc. In later times however, as probably in instances such as these later examples, it seems that more commercial venues would be the case.

7th November 2016, 03:00 PM	#18
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,196	Hi Marcus, Well reasoned as always, and these puluaors of yours are fascinating. It seems you have been reading 'The Great Game' by Hopkirk, as I recall you noted. These regions were a hotbed of intrigue in those days just as they remain today. In the 19th century into the early 20th, Afghanistan was actually considered part of India as its Northwest Frontier. It is true that a great deal of diplomatic effort was centered there and Great Britain was subsidizing the development of industry, infrastructure and many military considerations. The introduction of British weaponry and uniform into the assemblage of Afghan army units was sometimes curious, which included instances of 'Albert' metal helmets and kilts. As previously mentioned, the Machin Khana factory in Kabul, was engaged in producing British arms under their subsidy and direction. There were likely other workshops and venues also involved in supplying forces there which were outside official channels. These naturally were unrecorded officially so difficult to verify. This was a situation long well established in the Raj, and many arms came into India without government marks or the ISD (India Stores Dept) stamps. Also, makers indeed produced blades intended to appear to be of British origin (post #12, 'made in EGland, misspell). The scabbard was no doubt in imitation of British military style, and the carry rings are positioned accordingly, with the chape sleeve tooled with openwork as in many cases of this Afghan style preference. The scabbards of the Afghan military style swords have different carry systems. There is also no doubt that this hilt was fashioned in these Afghan regions (part of British India) in accordance with traditional motif and design, based on the Persian/Ottoman decorative styles present in Central Asia for over two centuries. The blade remains the anomaly in whether it was produced in the Enfield factory in England, or indeed produced in one of the quasi-British enterprises using an acquired 'Enfield' stamp, which does not seem far fetched. The officers and appointed officials would of course have been likely to carry these kinds of amalgamated arms of British military and traditional style in this climate of development and British intervention. The numbers of British blades mounted in Indian swords is well known, and many of the M1796 blades were indeed captured as mentioned previously resulting in Indian preference for this pattern blade. Most of these instances were many years earlier during the Sikh wars etc. In later times however, as probably in instances such as these later examples, it seems that more commercial venues would be the case. Last edited by Jim McDougall; 7th November 2016 at 03:12 PM.