|
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 sword type, but an assortment of different Eastern curved swords inspired by types introduced to the Middle East by Central Asian ghilmans (enslaved soldiers). These swords include the Persian '' shamshir'', the Arab '' saif'', the Indian '' talwar'', the North African '' nimcha'', the Turkish '' kilij'', and the Afghan '' pulwar''. All such swords are originally derived from earlier curved swords developed in Turkic Central Asia ( Turkestan). Etymology The English term ''scimitar'' is attested from the mid-16th century and derives partly from the Middle French ''cimeterre'' (15th century) and partly the Italian ''scimitarra''. The ultimate source of these terms is possibly corruptions of the Persian '' shamshir,'' however this is still d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 blade with a pointed tip. A slashing sword is more likely to be curved and to have a sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade. Many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing. The precise definition of a sword varies by historical epoch and geographic region. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger; the Bronze Age sword, earliest specimens date to about 1600 BC. The later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The spatha, as it developed in the Late Roman army, became the predecessor of the European sword of the Middle Ages, at first adopted as the Migration Period sword, and only in the High Middle Ages, developed into the classical Knightly sword, ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 shamshir, kilij, talwar, pulwar, and nimcha. A ''shamshir shekargar'' () is the same as a ''shamshir'', except the blade is engraved and decorated, usually with hunting scenes. Description Originally, Persian swords were straight and double edged. Curved sabre blades were Central Asian in origin. There is considerable disagreement between historians as to when these curved blades were first introduced from Central Asia into Persia, and over what period they became adopted and modified into the recognizable Shamshir. Curved blades began to appear in Persia in the 9th century, when these weapons were used by soldiers in the Khorasan region of Central Asia but were not widely adopted. The sword now called a "shamshir" was developed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 khanates of Eurasian steppes and Turkestan. These blades developed from earlier Turko-Mongol sabers that were in use in lands controlled or influenced by the Turkic peoples. History Etymology Most of Turkology, Turkologists and linguists including Ahmet Bican Ercilasun, Bican Ercilasun and Sevan Nişanyan think that it is derived from the Turkic root ''kıl-'' which means "to forge" or "to smith", with the diminutive suffix ''-ıç'' which creates ''kıl-ıç'' (roughly "ironwork", i.e. "sword"). Also one of the earliest mentions of the word was also recorded as (, an Old Turkic phrase from the Orkhon Inscriptions which was erected in 735 AD) in the age of Göktürk Khaganate, Turkic Khaganate, instead of the other suggested Old Turkic rec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pulwar
The pulwar or pulouar () is a single-handed curved sword originating in Afghanistan. Origin The pulwar originated alongside other scimitar-type weapons such as the Arab Arab sword, saif, the Persian shamshir, the Turkish kilij, and the Indian talwar, 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 talwar. Pulwar blades tend to be more elaborately fuller (weapon), fullered than those of the talwar. Some pulwar hilts were fitted to Iran, Persian blades which are slimmer and more curved and ta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arab Sword
The saif (), sometimes called a shamshir (from ), depending on the era, originated in Arabia before the 7th century. Little is known about this weapon besides what Al-Kindi wrote in his treatise ''On Swords'' in the 9th century. Description In the article "Introduction to the Study of Islamic Arms and Armour", A. Rahman Zaky says the saif is "[a]n Arab sword, [with] a rather broad blade and sometimes with a peculiarly hooked pommel. The size varies greatly. It is found in most countries in which the Arabs have lived, and each has its own variety. Early Arab chroniclers used to mention two kinds of swords: Saif Anith, which was made of iron, and Saif Fulath or Muzakka, which was made of steel." Etymology ''Saif'' is an Arab word for swords in general, not a certain type. The term ''xiphos'', Greek for a double-edged straight sword, may be related to ''saif''. Anatomy The handle is the ''miqbad''; the pommel, ''halq''; and the quillon, ''haris''. The blade is composed of the fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nimcha
A nimcha () is a single-handed sword from North Africa, especially used in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. It is classified as a type of scimitar or ''saif''. Becoming popular in north Africa during the 16th century, surviving nimcha are usually from the late 18th century onward and are notable for often using older blades. Stylistically they often bore Arabian type handles with Tughra, tugrah inscribed on the blade. Characteristics Blades on nimcha came in a variety of forms, and were often imported from Europe. Always of a single edge variety the two main forms were either a short generally more deeply curved 'cutlass style', or a longer more slender form that sometimes bore a clipped point. Nimcha also have distinct hilts that sport forward pointing Crossguard, quillions, which end in a 'bud' style. The wooden handles are flat sided and squared off at an almost 90 degree "hooked" pommel. The blade and hilt are attached by a stud located on the top of the pommel. The cross gu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Egyptian Language
The Egyptian language, or Ancient Egyptian (; ), is an extinct branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts, which were made accessible to the modern world following the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian scripts in the early 19th century. Egyptian is one of the earliest known written languages, first recorded in the hieroglyphic script in the late 4th millennium BC. It is also the longest-attested human language, with a written record spanning over 4,000 years. Its classical form, known as " Middle Egyptian," served as the vernacular of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and remained the literary language of Egypt until the Roman period. By the time of classical antiquity, the spoken language had evolved into Demotic, and by the Roman era, diversified into various Coptic dialects. These were eventually supplanted by Arabic after the Muslim conquest of Egypt, although Bohairic Coptic rem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boulanger Gustave Clarence Rodolphe A Tale Of 1001 Nights
Boulanger () is a typical French and Francophone surname, equivalent of the English ''Baker'', the Italian ''Panettiere'', etc. It is shared by several notable persons: * André Boulanger (1886–1958), French professor of literature and Latin scholar *Daniel Boulanger (1922–2014), French novelist, playwright, poet and screenwriter * Ernest Boulanger (composer) (1815–1900), French composer and conductor, father of Nadia and Lili * Ernest Boulanger (politician) (1831–1907), French politician and economist * Georges Ernest Boulanger (1837–1891), French general and politician *Georges Boulanger (violinist) (1893–1958), Romanian violinist, conductor and composer * Graciela Rodo Boulanger (born 1935), Bolivian painter * Gustave Boulanger (1824–1888), French painter * Lili Boulanger (1893–1918), French composer, Nadia's sister * Louis Boulanger (1806–1867), French Romantic painter, pastellist, lithographer and poet * Mike Boulanger (born 1949), American baseball coach * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khurasan
KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West Asia, West and Central Asia that encompasses western and northern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, the eastern halves of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, and portions of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The extent of the region referred to as ''Khorasan'' varied over time. In its stricter historical sense, it comprised the present territories of Khorasan Province, northeastern Iran, parts of Afghanistan and southern parts of Central Asia, extending as far as the Amu Darya (Oxus) river. However, the name has often been used in a loose sense to include a wider region that included most of Transoxiana (encompassing Bukhara and Samarqand in present-day Uzbekistan), extended westward to the Caspian Sea, Caspian coast and to the Dasht-e Kavir southward to Sistan, and eastward to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turko-Mongol Sabers
The Turco-Mongol sabre, alternatively known as the Eurasian sabre or nomadic sabre, was a type of sword used by a variety of nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes, including Turkic peoples, Turkic and Mongols, Mongolic groups, primarily between the 8th and 14th centuries. One of the earliest recorded sabres of this type was recovered from an Pannonian Avars, Avar grave in Romania dating to the mid-7th century. Although minor variations occur in size and hilt, they are common enough in design across five centuries that individual blades are difficult to date when discovered without other context. These swords were likely however, already influenced by swords used by others, such as the various Chinese swords. These swords measured between in blade length and bore a gentle curve, leading to a pointed tip useful for thrusting. They were designed for use on cavalry, horseback and neighboring peoples frequently encountered these blades at the hands of Turkic raiders. A common fe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rajputs
Rājpūt (, from Sanskrit ''rājaputra'' meaning "son of a king"), also called Thākur (), is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The term ''Rajput'' covers various patrilineal clans historically associated with warriorhood: several clans claim Rajput status, although not all claims are universally accepted. According to modern scholars, almost all Rajput clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities. Over time, the Rajputs emerged as a social class comprising people from a variety of ethnic and geographical backgrounds. From the 12th to 16th centuries, the membership of this class became largely hereditary, although new claims to Rajput status continued to be made in later centuries. Several Rajput-ruled kingdoms played a significant role in many regions of central and northern India from the seventh century ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
