Silver thouma jambiya

[Marc M.]

One of my latest acquisitions, a thouma jambiya with a silver scabbard and belt with silver accessories. The quality of the silverware is quite good. I spent a few hours cleaning up the silver with a toothbrush and a very small amount of water and toothpaste and finished with a silver polishing cloth. Rewarding, much more detail became visible. The jambiya is again one of the hollow blade type and the quality is much lower than that of the scabbard. I wonder if they belong together even though the fit is good. Has traces of use but estimate 2nd half 20th century. Comments welcome.

Regards Marc

[TVV]

I do not know how to date the jambiya, but the scabbard and belt are definitely very high quality, congratulations.

[Marc M.]

Thanks Teodor, in Gracie's book there are quite a lot of thouma jambiyas of very high quality, made by Jewish and Arab silversmiths. There is a single jambiya in the book that can somewhat compare to mine. Doesn't mean, of course, that it was made by one of those great silversmiths in the book. There are no marks on it but as you said made by an excellent craftsman. The jambiyas themselves from the book are reasonably uniform and simple, but mostly with a handle made of rhino horn and a decent blade. Hence my doubt that they belong together. Most of the jambiyas I have fit into this sheath, so not that difficult to fill the empty sheath.

Regards
Marc

[David R]

Very nice!

[Marc M.]

Thanks David. After reading an older post about a Bousani jambiya with a stamp on the back of one of the silver pieces on the belt, I went to look on the back of one of the pieces because I thought it was damage or bad soldering. Turns out to be some kind of stamp after all.
Is there anyone who can make out what it is, doesn't look like the stamps from Gracie's book.
Regards
Marc

[Marc M.]

Photo.

[Pertinax]

Hi Marc!

I also have a jambiya that does not fit the sheath.

The sheath is presumably from the early 20th century, made of silver with open filigree work. The inlay of the sheath is very typical for Saudi daria (or sabiki) daggers, which are also called the Wahhabi dagger.

Presumably the work of Jewish jewelers from Yemen, they moved to Israel when it was born in 1949.

The jambiya itself is younger, presumably from the mid-20th century, the handle of the jambiya, traditional for these sheaths, has a different design. Perhaps the blade is original and the handle was replaced due to its breakage for some reason.

Regards,
Yuri

[Pertinax]

Here is an example of a jambiya for such a scabbard