The Manding sword, the Tuareg aljuinar and Omani curved kattara: Are they connected?

Iain · 10th April 2019, 08:53 AM

Jim and Ibrahiim,

As you are both making much the same argument I'll respond jointly.I don't want to reopen the question of the Omani swords and their purpose, I think there's been plenty of discussion on that in the past! However, With that in mind, regardless of the function of the Omani examples, that has little bearing on the Manding examples unless a connection has been established, which frankly I haven't been convinced of yet. A single entry from the Pitts Museum is hardly a conclusive record of how these were used. With that being said, attempting to draw parallels is unfortunately sounding like confirmation bias.

Briefly regarding guard-less swords, it would be rather a shock to historical users of dha and dao I think to learn their swords were not intended for sword on sword combat! Not to mention a multitude of other historical examples. some of which I already mentioned. I am quite happy to agree to disagree as that is a topic perhaps much larger than the intended scope of this thread. Suffice to say we appear to have different views on guardless swords and status swords within this particular culture.

In any case I think there is plenty of information given in the thread to let readers make up their own minds and it is certainly an interesting topic and an enjoyable one where some interesting ideas have been raised.

10th April 2019, 08:53 AM	#32
Iain Member Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Olomouc Posts: 1,719	Jim and Ibrahiim, As you are both making much the same argument I'll respond jointly.I don't want to reopen the question of the Omani swords and their purpose, I think there's been plenty of discussion on that in the past! However, With that in mind, regardless of the function of the Omani examples, that has little bearing on the Manding examples unless a connection has been established, which frankly I haven't been convinced of yet. A single entry from the Pitts Museum is hardly a conclusive record of how these were used. With that being said, attempting to draw parallels is unfortunately sounding like confirmation bias. Briefly regarding guard-less swords, it would be rather a shock to historical users of dha and dao I think to learn their swords were not intended for sword on sword combat! Not to mention a multitude of other historical examples. some of which I already mentioned. I am quite happy to agree to disagree as that is a topic perhaps much larger than the intended scope of this thread. Suffice to say we appear to have different views on guardless swords and status swords within this particular culture. In any case I think there is plenty of information given in the thread to let readers make up their own minds and it is certainly an interesting topic and an enjoyable one where some interesting ideas have been raised. Last edited by Iain; 10th April 2019 at 09:39 AM.