Omani khanjar

[A.alnakkas]

Originally Posted by Richard G

The khunjar in post #6 has a fine silver face of closely placed pins. In my experience the material of the hilt itself is probably worthy of closer inspection.

The jambiya in post # is, as Khanjar1 says, now thought to be KSA. A convincing point, to me, as Ibrahim points out, is the two small lugs on the rear of the scabbard which would facilitate attachment to a wide Yemeni style belt, and be redundant on a true Omani khunjar. Ruth Hawley's book (1978) on Omani silver illustrates a similar jambiya, but on an Omani belt, which she attributes 'probably' to the Sharqiyah in Oman. This attribution may be wrong, but I think we can safely assume the khunjar was in Oman, when she acquired it.

The King Feisal Centre Exhibition catalogue has two jambiya with this type of scabbard (page 56) described as 'Doojaniiyan' and 'contemporary' and from Al Ahsa (1990). I often wondered what that meant. Now, thanks to Mr Alnakkas, I know. Does anyone know more of Abdulaziz Al Dojani, I am beginning to think he must have had a sizeable workshop.
Regards
Richard

I noticed the close pins too. This is certainly old as new craftsmen do not do it that well now and their tries look bad in my eyes. I have seen it mainly on rhino, but in Oman I saw some applied to a honey colored hard wood type.

Dojan is supposedly still in business and makes plenty of khanjars. May next plan is to visit Saudi Arabia and gather as much information as possible from the source. AS for the King Faisal book, it has many flaws.