Kalis: Origin of Minadanaon Kris

[baganing_balyan]

Originally Posted by RhysMichael

Interesting on the bird association with the yatagan, thank you for sharing that . Still I find the theory that the hilt on the Kris evolved from the yatagan tenuous at best (I find the hilt on a Nias Gari closer in profile than the yatagan to the the kris hilt you talk of, though I am in no way saying one of those evolved from the other just making note of a similarity in profile; the hilt on the Garis is a lasara head ) . If they did take the shape of the hilt from the yatagan why did they not incoporate any of the aspects of the blade ? I would find a more likely explanation that the bird motif is tied to Islamic docterine and symbology (or perhaps even earlier Judeo-Christian symbology) and both hilts evolved separately because of that. Birds are common in Aceh motifs. ( in fact I have often wondered if the hulu meucangge is supposed to symbolize a stork just as the hulu Gonjo does but thats way off the subject and just random thoughts) and the sumatran word for parrot I believe is kakaktua. The etymology is certainly interesting and deserves further study. Again I do not know that it ties the yatagan to the kris or if it just shows an influence on the language by the Otoman. Further study and proof would be needed. I can completely buy into the concept that the Ottoman had an influence on the culture and language I just need stronger proof before I would say the Kris hilt was derived from the yatagan

If you are looking for The Ottomans in Aceh a path towards the the Philippines the link below is a paper you may find interesting entitled
"Ottoman-Aceh Relations Accordingto the Turkish Sources"
Ismail Hakkı GÖKSOY
Suleyman Demirel University, Faculty of Theology,
Isparta, Turkey
Presented at First International Conference of Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies
24 – 27 February 2007
Here is the link http://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/docs/Aceh-...akkigoksoy.pdf

I hope it proves helpful

Thanks for the link. I am primarily interested in the relationship between the turks and aceh in sixteenth century. Turling wrote about such relationship.

I have no doubt that Islamic arabs from middle east reached the malay archipelago, but dna mapping suggests that they did not last long for their haplogroups did not take root in the malay archipelago.

Maybe they are just traders or traveling missionaries or even ancient tourists like ibn batuta.

Early yatagans have no anka pommels, but the blades were inlaid with gold and jewels using anka motif. Later when the yatagans got anka pommels, the inlaid bird motifs, generally, could no longer be found on the blade.

the yatagan of suleiman the magnificent is the good example.