The pulwar or pulouar () is a single-handed curved

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

originating in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

Origin

The pulwar originated alongside other

scimitar A scimitar ( or ) is a single-edged sword with a convex curved blade of about 75 to 90 cm (30 to 36 inches) associated with Middle Eastern, South Asian, or North African cultures. A European term, ''scimitar'' does not refer to one specific swor ...

-type weapons such as the Arab saif, the Persian

shamshir A shamshir () is a type of Persian/Iranian sword with a radical curve. The name is derived from the Persian word ''shamshīr'', which is made of two words ''sham'' ("fang") and ''shir'' ("lion"). The curved " scimitar" sword family includes the ...

, the Turkish

kilij A kilij (from Turkish language, Turkish ''kılıç'', literally "sword") is a type of one-handed, single-edged and curved scimitar used by the Seljuk dynasty, Seljuk Empire, Timurid Empire, Mamluk Empire, Ottoman Empire, and other Turkic khanat ...

, and the Indian

talwar The talwar (), also spelled talwaar and tulwar, is a type of curved sword or sabre from the Indian subcontinent. Etymology and classification The word ''talwar'' originated from the Sanskrit Language, Sanskrit word ''taravāri'' () which means ...

, all of them ultimately based on earlier Central Asian swords. Originally, the Khyber Knife (a type of short sword) served as the weapon of the common people while upper-classes could afford to import swords from neighbouring Persia and India. Over time, the Afghans combined characteristics of the imported swords and adapted it to create the pulwar. Most existing pulwars date back to the early 19th century.

Characteristics

Borrowing features from the swords of neighboring lands, the pulwar may be described as an Afghan version of the Indian

. Pulwar blades tend to be more elaborately fullered than those of the talwar. Some pulwar hilts were fitted to

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

blades which are slimmer and more curved and tapered towards the tip than the more typically robust pulwar blades. The

hilt The hilt (rarely called a haft or shaft) is the handle of a knife, dagger, sword, or bayonet, consisting of a guard, grip, and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pomme ...

is characterized by two quillons which are short and turned to point in the direction of the blade in the manner of some shamshir and saif, a feature typical of swords produced in

Qajar The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic origin,Cyrus Ghani. ''Iran an ...

period Iran. Like the tulwar, the hilt is made of iron, and is attached to the tang of the blade by a very strong adhesive resin. Unlike the flat disc surrounding the pommel of the tulwar, the pommel of pulwar exhibits a cup-shape.Evangelista and Gaugler, p. 483. Both hilt and blade can be ornately engraved with inscriptions, designs, and images.

Notes

References

* Evangelista, N. and Gaugler, W. M. (1995). ''The encyclopedia of the sword.'' Greenwood Publishing Group. {{ISBN, 0-313-27896-2. Weapons of Afghanistan Single-edged swords Pashtun culture

Origin

Characteristics

See also

Notes

References