Odd Sword

[ariel]

Only 3 years passed since the last post... In Darwinian term it is a millisecond:-)
Is the blade hexagonal? Or clearly lenticular ( i.e. biconvex)?

[fernando]

To my eyes and judging by its ricasso, it starts hexagonal, and would change to lenticular ... both on the thin side .

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Lech Marek places a fascinating piece of research on the detail around BENEDICTus style inscriptions on sword blades see http://www.academia.edu/13386318/THE...l._10_pp._9-20

This is hugely detailed but is also very informative describing the ritual of blessing swords etc...

[ariel]

To my eyes this hexagonal blade looks like a worn out and modified example of a Spanish cavalry blade 1728 pattern. They produced it in different sizes till the end of 18 century when they switched to the curved blade.

http://perso.wanadoo.es/jjperez222/tropacab_e.htm

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

In looking at my reference thus staying on Benidictus style script I see the letters again could be interesting ..

M 51 DD M

The Book of Revelation is often referred to as 51... So are we off to a reasonable set of meaningful code?

In suggesting Portuguese origin of blade form at http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showt...rtuguese+swords it could of course point to another source as actual blade manufacture; Solingen. This would suggest the religious nature of the blade marks as being in line with the reference above at http://www.academia.edu/13386318/TH...ol._10_pp._9-20

Could the DD indicate In Nomini Domini or perhaps Dominus Deus? http://www.academia.edu/13386318/TH....10_pp._9-20and the two outer M shapes be some sort of decorative introduction or brackets?

This weapon is indeed interesting as an Ethnographic example whereby an old blade has been given a mixed cloak namely the Solomon star decoration and the added extension of extra tang and Pommel of an Omani Dancing Sword. The blade appears much older than the Pommel which is from a distinctive 19thC Dancing Sword style. I have shown in a previous post how this is achieved and particularly in the souk workshops of Muttrah where it is common practice. It should be noted that in the case of Omani Dancing Swords a weak point caused by vibration is about half way up the tang...Omani Dancers are made with tang and pommel and blade in one piece and it may be observed that the curved Omani Kattara is not so it has to have a tang extension and pommel added to every weapon...

I digress... however, it is the tang and Pommel which brings the entire weapon to the table from the Ethnographic viewpoint. Decoration to the Pommel is superb following the Solomon style star but I have never seen it before on a Pommel.

By way of a correction it may be seen that the initial and final letters are not the M letter but the old fashioned way of presenting the letter A

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

The objective is to crack this code A 5 1 D D A Where the A is in Majescule form at both ends of the code.

There may well be a variation in how the reference is applied since 51 could refer to the book of revelations or Psalm 51 . I am looking at the A called The Majescule A which looks to belong to several alphabets and has a peculiar tail at the top left of the letter and a central support leg to the cross piece …
Could this indicate a place... Augsberg possibly.

I recall Michael(RIP) in one of his amazing epic threads discussing the Augsberg Halbard pole arms with the Augsberg letter in Latten style on the blade in the form term being expressed here...of a Majescule A. Could this be indicating that since A is at both ends of the script that it forms a sort of bracket around the biblical term being expressed. Thus underwriting the blessing as having been carried out at Augsberg? Thus so far I have a hypothesis as follows...Benedictus style blessings often focussed on a psalm thus I lean toward that possibility~

At Augsberg Psalm 51(or the book of Revelations) Dominus Deus At Augsberg.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

The Ethnographics of this case are huge! Not only is the hilt rare in the case of the other sword See Post 44.....but on The Odd Sword the incredible decorative form on the added pommel illustrating the Solomon style star geometry and Talismanic gridded majic square with Arabic numerals seemingly all 5s …
I have previously described figure 5 geometry as representing Hand of Fatima daughter of The Prophet (pboh) . In addition there is a tang extension although it looks like this part snapped off another sword type...The only weapon it could have come off is The Omani Dancer. The decorative devices are so rare that no one has seen such a decoration before.

I also show how the fixing is made in a previous post to thread See post 23.


Please note that blade and hilt and pommel are made as one with the blade on dancing swords so that in the case of a hilt and or hilt extension
there would be no rivets or brazing together of hilt parts unless the hilt was a replacement of some sort... In this case two parts ...Half a hilt with two rivets shown and a complete Pommel with Tang extension in this case riveted . See pictures below.