Moro kris with unusual design on the blade

[tom22]

I recently picked this up in a junk shop and it came i the dayak scabbard, the blade was covered in a dry grease ,I've cleaned it up a little , I just wondered if the design has any meaning or just decoration , it's quite a large heavy blade

[David]

The symbols would have very deep and personal talismanic meaning to the original owner. For better or for worse though, i am afraid no one today would be able to decipher their exact meaning. Nice junk shop find!

[xasterix]

Originally Posted by tom22

I recently picked this up in a junk shop and it came i the dayak scabbard, the blade was covered in a dry grease ,I've cleaned it up a little , I just wondered if the design has any meaning or just decoration , it's quite a large heavy blade

Nice find!

The square engraving is known as the "Seal of Solomon," a symbol for King Solomon's ring. Folk Islam attributed Solomon's control over Jinn to his possession of the ring which came straight from Allah.

The other engravings- the circles- may refer to either stages in spiritual ascent, or energy sources.

Hope this helps, nice kris!

[tom22]

Originally Posted by xasterix

Nice find!

The square engraving is known as the "Seal of Solomon," a symbol for King Solomon's ring. Folk Islam attributed Solomon's control over Jinn to his possession of the ring which came straight from Allah.

The other engravings- the circles- may refer to either stages in spiritual ascent, or energy sources.

Hope this helps, nice kris!

Thats great , thanks for taking your time to add this information , very interesting ,
Thanks

[David]

Originally Posted by xasterix

Nice find!

The square engraving is known as the "Seal of Solomon," a symbol for King Solomon's ring. Folk Islam attributed Solomon's control over Jinn to his possession of the ring which came straight from Allah.

The other engravings- the circles- may refer to either stages in spiritual ascent, or energy sources.

Hope this helps, nice kris!

That could indeed be a magickal seal of some sort, but it is not the Seal of Solomon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_Solomon

[Rafngard]

Originally Posted by David

That could indeed be a magickal seal of some sort, but it is not the Seal of Solomon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_Solomon

"Ring of Solomon" might be a more accurate name for it, but I've definitely heard it called (perhaps erroneously) "Seal of Solomon" more than once.
It does show up fairly frequently on Moro blades. I have at least one.
It'd be interesting to know what people in Bangsamoro call it.

https://blogs.bl.uk/asian-and-africa...east-asia.html

Thanks,
Leif

[Rafngard]

The same symbol on my "gun-ong."
Many of this variant a Ring of Solomon.

Thanks,
Leif

[xasterix]

Originally Posted by David

That could indeed be a magickal seal of some sort, but it is not the Seal of Solomon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_Solomon

As proof, here's an image and accompanying text entry from one of my references.

Yahya, F. (2015). Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts. Brill.

"This design is an ancient one- Schuster has traced its earliest appearance to an amulet from Mohenjo-Daro dating to 1,300 BC (at the latest), and it is prevalent in South and Southeast Asia and even in Europe according to Shaw (1971)."

I used "Seal of Solomon" because as noted in your Wikipedia entry, the term is interchangeable with "Ring of Solomon." The image in the book is captioned as "Solomon's ring."