Yemeni Curved Sword

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Ariel, good note on that mark. It does seem like that was a Caucasian mark. It always intrigued me on what it represented. I once thought perhaps it might be a monstrance or some sort of religious configuration. I need to find those notes, but Caucasian seems a good possibility.

On the kattaras, I think we found some time ago that there was apparently differentiation in the locally applied terms. The straight blade forms of these are simply sa'if, while these with curved blades are termed kattara.

It is much like the term pallasche reserved for straight bladed swords, while sabre or more descriptive variations refer to curved blade swords.
The name game is the bane of our understanding of terms for arms, and often commonly used terms are confounding when trying to establish logic or reason.

I think if anyone, at the risk of their sanity, took on the daunting task of cataloguing and trying to explain the spectrum of terms and words describing edged weapons in their various contexts, it would be astounding .
Naturally they would have to navigate through the maelstrom of transliterations, colloquial slang and nicknames and most confounding of all, the web of 'collectors terms'.

Salaams Jim, That is very interesting... Could that mark be from the Caucasus? I have it down as a Ras al Khaimah produced weapon...Naturally so that a hilt of this form could be built around it ...the weapon must have had an elongated tang and pommel added. I wondered if the mark you call a keyhole mark is in fact a geometrical God is Great format?