Rhino Khanjar for comments

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by A.alnakkas

There are no leather strips. Its wool :-)



I very much respect your desire to be precise with the age, but there is no 100% answer really.



This is the only one I found in Artzi's site with similar pin decoration:

http://oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=3186

Artzi suggests its 19th century though.



Agree, though you will find that Yemeni's have a larger preference of Rhino and categorize them within certain categories. Saifani being the most desired, so I have heard.



Nothing wrong with that mate.



I am interested if your workshop have done such work before, or are they basing this on gut instinct maybe? included is a picture of the pin that hold the filigree of my other Omani khanjar, its equally old and the pin is much larger which makes sense. I highly doubt such fine and thin silver pins can hold filigree on a hilt that is used in dances, combat etc for long. I guess we need more examples to know for sure



Its an interesting hypothesis for sure, we have a wealth of information here and elsewhere and I am looking through sites for more examples to compare with because one example is not much to build on!

Salaams A.alnakkas ~ It appears that the leather strips have been replaced by wool.. ( I thought perhaps the leather had deteriorated ) Probably replaced when it broke down. It appears they also used strips of felt.

Artzis weapon is a Salalah style. It could be late 19th C. Nice pin work.

See The Omani Khanjar http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14878 for a great reference on Rhino by Spiral plus the different names of Rhino of which Z'raf is a name applied here whilst the others appear to be used in the Yemen... and comparing the two regions I have no idea what percentage of hilts were Rhino in each but agree Yemeni work with Rhino hilt "seems" more common.

You state that Quote, (included is a picture of the pin that hold the filigree of my other Omani khanjar, its equally old and the pin is much larger which makes sense.) Unquote.

~Please show me a full picture as what I see looks like it is not an Omani Khanjar but Habaabi... Southern corner of Saudia. It appears that Yemeni/Saudia construction of hilts often used those big pins where as in Oman they were much finer~ Searching about I see #25 and a full picture of the dagger to which you refer... Its Habaabi... Saudia.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.