Afghani pulwar: old and ( perhaps) revealing

[mahratt]

Originally Posted by ariel

Thanks. Very helpful.
When the picture is enlarged to 400-500%, one can see clearly that the pommels marked in red are not solid spherical, but flat on top ( hemispherical), hollow inside, have no lids and in some of them balusters protrude above the boundaries of the pommel. Also, their quillons are fleuret-like and not down-turned, strengthening Jens' statement of their earlier origin.

You probably did not enlarge the miniature that I showed.
Although there are also hemispherical pommel on the miniature (I highlighted with a white arrow). The ratio of spherical pommels and hemispherical pommels is about the same, so it is difficult to say which shape of the top was more archaic.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Memoirs_of_Babur_(Walters_MS_596)#/media/File:Zahir_al-Din_Muhammad_Babur_-_The_Battle_of_Sultan_Husayn_Mirza_Against_Sultan_ Mas'ud_Mirza_-_Walters_W59618B_-_Full_Page.jpg

[ariel]

You just did not zoom them enough. Look at their tops: they are flat.
Hemispherical as they can be , all showing darkened innards with protruding balusters, all just like the one with a white arrow.
Again, thanks for providing incontrovertible iconographic evidence in my favor.

[mahratt]

Originally Posted by ariel

You just did not zoom them enough.

If you enlarge the images even further, since the clarity of the image will be lost, you can expect any form of pommels.
I think everyone could see the form conceived by the author of the miniatures.

[ariel]

Having politely thanked Mahratt for his valuable evidence in favor of my original post, I hereby stop responding to his comments.
Any other critiques/suggestions/interpretations are more than welcome.

Happy New Year!

[mahratt]

Salaams Ibrahiim

Maybe my eyesight is failing ... Look, please, are you leading a spherical pommel this sword here? Or a hemisphere?

[Battara]

It does remind me of a rounded poppy. Interesting.

[ariel]

Jose,
Usually, such pommels are described as " onion-like" in the literature.
But even if it is solidly spherical, it does not change a bit: as I reported earlier, Google Images finds them in ~10% of cases. Most importantly, the one with white arrow is unquestionably just like mine. One is enough to prove the point:-)
Again, thanks to Mahratt to provide this information.

[mahratt]

Originally Posted by Battara

It does remind me of a rounded poppy. Interesting.

Jose
Thank you for confirming that everything is in order with my eyesight

Ariel is right when he says that "Google Images finds them in ~10% of cases", when referring to the spherical pommels of pulwars sword
(But this is a monitoring based on swords of the 19th and early 20th centuries).
But, perhaps Ariel did not understand me, because of my bad English. Undoubtedly, the shape of the pommel, as on his sword, is quite archaic (although I would not rush and date the sword with the 16-17th century, since this shape of the hilt was preserved even later).
I just support the opinion of Ibrahiim, who believes that the spherical shape of the hilt top (pommel) can be more archaic than hemispherical ... A confirmation of this (in my opinion) is that on miniatures of the 15-16th century spherical pommel swords are found as often , like hemispherical. And sometimes spherical pommel swords are found on miniatures even more often than hemispherical.

P.S. I apologize for my bad English.
If need to explain something from my words, I will try to do it.