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Enamored with ArabianArms
The British adventurer Bertram Thomas, oneof the mad Englishmen who went out in the midday sun and tried to bethe first to cross the Empty Quarter of Arabia, entitled an accountof his exploits "Alarms and Excursion in Arabia." His was more thanan excursion, hardly a Devonshire picnic, and he creates a sense ofcontinual alarms from the individualistic Bedouin warriors whocrossed his path. These were fierce armed men. But what of theirarms &emdash; their knives, daggers, swords, lances and firearms? And what of their armour? So much has been spun in the travelliterature on the raids and feuding of these descendants of Antar. But not until Robert Elgood's fascinating summation of the literatureand examination of private collections have we had one source toanswer these questions.
Fortunately, as Elgood notes (p. vii) a"considerable quantity of 'Arabian' arms have survived." But thispresents a challenge to the historian, because such items in museumsare generally poorly catalogued and analyzed. Modern craftsmen oftenrepair old firearms into something completely different. Indeed, Ifind it hard to imagine any old weapon still in use in Yemen that hasnot been to the fix-it shop on several occasions. Given the lack ofspare parts and technical knowhow, each piece quickly becomes anoriginal creation. To add to the problem, there are relatively fewdetailed drawings or photographs of old weapons. It is a wonder thatone can make any sense of the mishmash of old weapons to be found inthe region. Elgood succeeds quite elegantly in this present volume.
I had not originally intended to review thisbook. The civil strife last summer kept the book from reaching DavidWarburton, our resident expert on the genre. There are not, as youmight suspect, many individuals who have a habit of studying Arabianweapons of any age. In looking over the book at long last I began tosee a number of familiar names. Mr. Elgood was guided through theArab World by a most reputable raf£q, Bruce Ingham of SOAS. Ihad the pleasure of having a number of conversations, many in Arabicas it turns out, with Bruce in Qatar in 1990. Which brings us to asecond contact I share with the author. Elgood catalogued the armscollection of H.E. Shaykh Hasan bin Muhammad Al Thani of Qatar. Iwas fortunate to meet Shaykh Hasan in Qatar and use his excellentlibrary of rare imprints on the Arabian Peninsula as well as visitthe family gazelle farm, one of the most extensive collections ofgazelles anywhere in the world. The third link is with Sultan Ghalibal-Qu'ayti, now a resident of Saudi Arabia, who read the manuscriptand is a collector himself. While I am not pleased with the sadevents of last summer's fighting, I am at least consoled that I havethis opportunity to read and review a very solid contribution to thefield.
Details first. The book begins with a briefintroduction to the political history &emdash; mostly tribal &emdash;of Arabia in the past few centuries. Elgood proceeds with asystematic description of various genres of arms: swords (10-33),clubs, axes and maces (34-35), firearms and accountrements (37-51),Arab gunpowder (52-53), cannon (54-57), modern firearms andammunition (58-65), lances and spears (66-69), daggers and knives(70-95), and defensive arms (96-99). There are three appendices: weapons and justice (101-102), Damascus sword manufacture (103-109)and a method of renewing flowery grain of Damascus blades (111-112). Also included are a useful glossary by type of arm, bibliography andindex. Lest the reader think this is a boring reference book, thinkagain. Elgood draws much of his information from travelers andweaves elements of their adventures into the narrative with asplendid splattering of quotes. It would be difficult to be bored bythis book, no matter what your personal views about the tools we useto harm ourselves and others.
This is a high quality picture book aswell. Virtually every page of text has a photograph or illustration,modern and historic. The photographic reproduction quality isexcellent. It is not unlike leafing through Aramco World orNational Geographic. Yemenophiles will be attracted first tothe long chapter on daggers and knives. Here we find quite a fewexamples from Yemen and the Haśramawt. It is worth noting that Yemenis not the only place where dagger hilts were carved from rhinoceroshorn: an 18th century janbiyya from the Hejaz is shown (p.71). Of historical interest is the janbiyya purchased inSanaa by Carsten Niebuhr in 1763 (p. 87). You can also see the LeeEnfield rifle used by T.E. Lawrence of Arabia (p. 62). As ananthropologist, my personal favorite is the 19th century janbiyyahilt with Indian "coins" depicting Radha and Krishna (p. 87), thearchetypal love duet of Hindu folklore. Elgood notes that thesecoins were actually Indian substitutes for the Venetian gold ducat,with the local Hindu deities replacing the Christian saints. Howfitting that such coins end up on a Muslim Yemeni's dagger. Thereare 7 photos of South Yemeni "tribal types" wearing daggers (pp.89-92); these were taken by the British government in 1943. ForYemen, there are also illustrations of Hadrami sabres (p. 13), asword given by the sultan of Shihr and Mukalla to King George V onhis accession in 1911 (p. 14), a crescent axe from Sabban (p. 36), amatchlock presented to King George V by the Sultans of Lahj (p. 43), and crossbows from Wadi 'Amd (p. 49).
References to arms from Yemen are quitefrequent in the text. We learn, for example, that Yemenis andHadramis used to refer to a good sword as muhannad, meaning itwas from India (p. 14). Mention is made of the Jewish silversmithsof Sanaa (p. 26), Yemeni crossbows (pp. 48-49), magical beliefs inSouthern Arabia regarding guns (p. 53), arms manufacture in Yemen (p.63), spears and lances in Yemen (p. 69), much on Yemeni daggers(chapter 9), a truth ordeal involving a red-hot knife in South Yemen(p. 101) and so on. Among the travelers consulted specifically forinformation on Yemeni arms are Niebuhr, G. Wyman Bury, Harris, andScott. Elgood also uses the work of the late R. B. Serjeant andreceived information on South Yemeni arms from Sultan Ghalibal-Qu'ayti. All in all, this is a very impressive survey of Westernlanguage sources. A few other relevant sources might also have beenconsulted, especially the work of Serjeant (in Serjeant andLewcock,Sanaa: An Arabian Islamic City, London, 1983, pp.239-240) on daggers and Dostal (ibid, pp. 263-267) on the craft ofdagger making in the Sanaa suq. There is also an excellentarticle by S. Camman ("The cult of the jambîya: daggerwearing in Yemen," Expedition 19/2:27-34, 1977). Ofpotential interest may be my own work on daggers and the rhino horntrade (in Oryx 32:4:215-219,1989).
In San'a a broad belt often embroidered withgold and silver thread holds the janbiyya which is worn by every manand boy; on the right side by sayyids, in the middle by other folk. It is worn under the belt, the scabbard being decorated with veryfine pierced silver and, more rarely, gold decoration, often withinscriptions. These are for the wealthy. The hilts are realtivelyplain horn with either a rounded top, the sayyid type, or more likethe plain Omani X shape (though without the Omani silver sheetdecoration)... In some cases the hilt is believed to have magicpowers derived from the maker, such as the ability to healwounds...
The blade of the Yemeni janbiyya is usuallybroader than any other in the peninsula and is made in a number ofcentres, San'a and Sa'da, al-Juba, Nisab, Radaa' and in theHadhramaut. Iron was produced locally and imported, particularlyfrom India. The Prophet had a Hindi sword of Yemeni tempering andthere are many references to Yemeni worked blades. Today the bladesare often imported from Japan. Locally produced blades are much morehighly regarded. When Harris was in San'a in 1892 he found that theYemenis usually chose their blades first and only then decided on thehilt and scabbard pattern, the blade being sold separately. Antiqueblades were considered the best, the popular view being that the oldart of hardening steel was lost. The 19th century blade was made ofmild steel which received its original edge by hammering on an anvil. They were kept very sharp, especially the inner edge which 'will cutthrough the thickest clothes to the bone. When merely brawling, theyslash at each other's forearms and shoulders, but when the fight isserious they close and deliver a round-armed stab in the back abovethe waist'...