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Old 2nd July 2010, 08:17 PM   #10
Jim McDougall
Arms Historian
 
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,767
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Devadatta
Unfortunatelly I have no beja-dagger in my collection, still I'm planning to purchase a few.

But I have a theory that this kind of shape came from arabs, since this region always had relations with Southern Arabia and in fact the blade of the curved one and the manner of wearing looks pretty similar to jambiya. And handle could become X-shaped already in Africa, because also being wide from both ends it reminds me of arabic jambiyas

Well placed observation, the Arabs were a profound influence as thier trade from India's coasts and to Africas east coasts from Zanzibar into the Red Sea were the link between the influences I mentioned. The Celtic influence via the Indo-European movements into the subcontinent had emplaced there, with the Arab trade carrying it westward.
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