Dagger!

motan · 8th August 2018, 11:34 AM

Hi Helleri,
Yes and no. The question of definitions and names has been discussed many times in this forum and has no clear answers. Do not forget that these are not natural categories like animal families, but they have been invented by collectors.
So, if you mean Jambiya in the sense of Middle Eastern curved dagger - yes.
Locals in Syria call it Khanjar, the generic name for dagger in Arabic.
The term Jambiya is not used outside the Arabian Peninsula and even there, the closest relative of the Yemeni Jambiya is the Omani dagger called Khanjar.
That is my view, and I don't care much about definitions as long as we all understand each other.

8th August 2018, 11:34 AM	#8
motan Member Join Date: Apr 2016 Location: Jerusalem Posts: 274	Hi Helleri, Yes and no. The question of definitions and names has been discussed many times in this forum and has no clear answers. Do not forget that these are not natural categories like animal families, but they have been invented by collectors. So, if you mean Jambiya in the sense of Middle Eastern curved dagger - yes. Locals in Syria call it Khanjar, the generic name for dagger in Arabic. The term Jambiya is not used outside the Arabian Peninsula and even there, the closest relative of the Yemeni Jambiya is the Omani dagger called Khanjar. That is my view, and I don't care much about definitions as long as we all understand each other.