Is this a Firangi ?

[ariel]

Originally Posted by drac2k

Generally when I think about a Firangi, what comes to my mind is a straight foreign European-made blade, however, this one has a sweeping curve and almost seems to resemble a Chinese Dao. The blade is 31" long.

Well, it depends on how you interpret " firangi". I you translate it as " foreigner", it will include the entire panoply of European blades imported to India over several centuries. If you, however, limit your translation to " Frank", it will relate mainly to the earliest Portuguese rapiers and later French, Spanish and Italian imports. In India these import blades were called "jahaji", from Persian " jahazi" , a " ship", since they were delivered by sea.

But what is almost certain, it is not an " Alemani", i.e. French word for "German". German blades were exported to India en masse starting in the ~17 century. Their characteristic feature was the presence of three narrow fullers close to the spine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y31Cocl3lOs; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnCHNChUobo). Same 3-fullered structure is seen on German exports to Aravia, North Africa, Eastern Europe etc.

Yours has only one fuller, and it is difiicult to claim its German origin: it is either non-German European or, quite likely, native Indian imitation of a European sword. And the latter were abundant. European blades often had original markings, whereas their locally-produced imitations had either no markings whatsoever, the crude " jaws" or illiterate inscriptions. Any on yours?

European sword blades enjoyed excellent reputation in India: even Aurangzeb, among his 27 personal swords, had 2 with European blades:
" Diamond" and " Conqueror of the World" ( "Alamgir"). The reason for their high reputation and desirability was their uniform reliability: Indian swords were produced in multiple workshops, and very ofther were made of wootz. There was no quality control and the blades varied between excellent and dismal. European exports were manufactured by professional guilds that carefully preserved their reputation. On top of that, their mass production resulted in lower prices. Thus, the buyers had a choice: a gorgeous and expensive wootz blade of uncertain quality or a cheaper and highly reliable one. And if they " kept it sharp and hit hard", the outcome was predictably highly satisfactory:-))