Omani Sayf/Saif

[colin henshaw]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

While of course they could be used in defense or other expected use, the likelihood that they were seems incidental. In most cases they simply were worn by merchants, slavers and officials as status symbols.

I don't see this as being accurate Jim. The flimsy type sword shown above is a modern production, and as already discussed previously in many posts by others, the historic swords were made for and used in combat, this not being an incidental purpose as you state.