Split Tipped Sword

[Gene Tausk]

Hi all:

Does anyone know anything about split-tipped swords? I came across a reference to it, in of all things, a conversation I had with a friend of mine who is Ismaili Muslim. He told me about a type of sword used by the Arabs which apparently date back to the time of Muhammad. These weapons are either curved or straight, btu their unique feature is a split, literally, at the tip of the sword that sometimes extends halfway down the blade. He also showed me some illustrations of these weapons.

I'm certainly no expert on this subject, but I cannot seem to see any practical value for this. The split seems too small to act as a sword catcher (to break the opponent's blade), but that is about the only purpose I can see.

These weapons have a variety of names, but one of the names apparently is "zulfikhar." I have no idea what this means. I ran across this term a while ago and might have even posted about it, but the conversation triggered my memory.

I don't know of any chronicle or history which records the use of this weapons against Crusaders, but I guess if they were around 1300 years ago, they would still be around 400 years later during the Crusades.

This is nothing critical, I just am curious after seeing illustrations of these unusual weapons. Does anyone know what the split is used for? Or, is the sword simply ceremonial and thus has no battlefield applications?

Thanks in advance.


-------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>gene

[Casper Bradak]

I've seen a couple of pictures, one straight bladed and one curved. One looked like it had a very indian style hilt. I don't think they were ceremonial, but probably expensive.
They each had wide last thirds for cutting, the split looked to me like it was simply a stylisic method of lightening the wide weapon like a fuller or a cut out pattern in a european weapon. I'm sure I've seen pics of falchions or messers with trefoil piercings, I believe they served the same function, but remained pointier.