Persian jambiya (non-sharpened blade)

Measurements
length: 9"
blade: 5 1/4"
grip and pommel: 3 7/8"
weight (jambiya): 6.4 oz
weight (jambiya and scabbard): 11.8 oz

Every once in a while the manufacturers of decorative bladed made-in-China fantasy daggers get one right, even if they don't know it. I've seen this small jambiya described as Greek or Tibetan or Mongolian (funny how many fantasy daggers are sold as "Mongolian" you'd think the Chinese had a bit of a thing for Mongols). Actually, this is a reasonably accurate reproduction of the jambiya carried by the Marsh Arabs of Iraq - those poor bastards whose people and culture were mostly destroyed by Saddam Hussein through the 1990's.

Shortly after the end of the Gulf war in 1991, the (Shi'a) Marsh Arabs were convinced by the US to rebel against Hussein's (Sunni) Ba'athist government. The rebellion began, the United States withdrew support, and the Marsh Arabs were punished with mass arrests, enforced "disappearances," torture and execution of political opponents, accompanied by ecologically catastrophic drainage of the marshlands of southern Iraq and the large-scale and systematic forcible transfer of the local population.

This jambiya is in the style used by the Marsh Arabs - the reproduction is shown above next to a short-sword sized jambiya from the early 1900's. Cast pommel and scabbard are decorated with Assyro-Babylonian figures and motifs. The blade is also cast metal - non-sharp, non-sharpenable.

Discontinued