An immense Khyber sword

[Stasa Katz]

Possibility of Peshkabz/Choora blades in Sindhi territory?

There is a description of some old weapons provided by Christopher Ondaatje, in his book Sind Revisited: A Journey in the Footsteps of Sir Richard Francis Burton.

http://www.google.com/search?q=chris...=1&btnG=Search

Alas, he gives no photograph of the items.

Mr Ondaatje made his visit in 1996. He appreciates blades. This quoted portion illustrates how one cannot just buy and take.

Mr Mohammed Kasim was the brother of the owner of Abid Jewellers in Karachi. I heard that he had three interesting Sindhi daggers: two Talpur (pre conquest by General Napier-JA) ivory handled weapons with gold filigree work on the spine and base of the handles; and a very old fakir crutch with a slender dagger fitted into the top part of the crutch. Making any sort of purchase from him wasn't easy, however. There were a lot of questions. Who was I? How had I been referred to Mr Kasim?

Finally, he agreed to show me the daggers. But they were not on the premises...

"Mr Kasim proved to be a gentle, humorous man..The Talpur daggers, one large and one medium size, had obviously belonged to a rich family. The other, the crutch of a fakir, would have belonged to a poor man with some need to protect himself.

"Mr. Kasim was asking far too much money, but these were rare items.

"I really wanted the daggers. I wanted the fakir's crutch too, but thought I would never get it out of Pakistan....

"When I returned to Canada, I learned that the two Sindhi daggers were Peshkabz daggers. Both have hilts of walrus ivory and watered blades of dark steel. The hilts have enameled gold enrichments intricately carved on both sides. They have no sheaths, which in the olden days, would have been of leather embroidered with silk and enriched with gold or silver enameled mounts.

"It is the character of their ornamentation rather than their shape that indicates that the two sindhi daggers were more persian than Afghan. The intricate engraving was also much more ornate than is usually found in India. Although my daggers had no precious stones, a great part of the treasure of the amirs consisted in the rubies, diamonds, pearls and emeralds with which their daggers, words and matchlocks were adorned. Persian goldsmiths were engaged at court in enamelling and damscening, and were renowned for their artistry....

pp 286 -297

Gentlemen, thank you again.

My curiosity began shortly after 9-11 when I tried to understand the predicament we were in.

Became interested in the region, the people and then, slowly, became curious about the knives.

One bias of mine is I like straight bladed knives. No disputing matters of taste.

For great good fun, there's a book by Alice Albinia entitled Empires of the Indus, published just recently, and easy to find.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008...travel.history

Albinia travelled the course of the Indus, post 9-11, mostly in Pakistan, with side trips into India (Punjab and Ladakh) ending at Mt Kailash. She gives ample information about Sindh, the Punjab on both sides of the post Partition border, and a very long visit into the Khyber, and on both sides of the Durand line. She showed admirable capacity to travel there on the region's own terms.

Albinia does not directly describe knife culture - by that time the automatic rifle has dominated - but she does give us context and a lot of the regions history and archeology -- all of which would have shaped cultures - and it is the cultures that produce the blades we discuss here.