Tabar (axe)
The tabar (also called tabarzin, which means "saddle axe") is a type of battle axe. The term tabar is used for axes originating from the Ottoman Empire, Persia, Armenia,[1] India and surrounding countries and cultures. As a loanword taken through Iranian Scythian, the word tabar is also used in most Slavic languages as the word for axe [2] (e.g. Russian: топор).
Persia
The tabarzin (saddle axe) (Persian: تبرزین; sometimes translated "saddle-hatchet") is the traditional battle axe of Persia (Iran). It bears one or two crescent-shaped blades. The long form of the tabar was about seven feet long, while a shorter version was about three feet long. What makes the Persian axe unique is the very thin handle, which is very light and always metallic.[3] The tabarzin was sometimes carried as a symbolic weapon by wandering dervishes (Muslim ascetic worshippers). The word tabar for axe was directly borrowed into Armenian as tapar (Armenian: տապար) from Middle Persian tabar,[4][5] as well as into Proto-Slavonic as "topor" (*toporъ), the latter word known to be taken through Scythian,[6][7] and is still the common Slavic word for axe.[8]
India
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the tabar battle axe was a standard weapon of the mounted warriors of India, Afghanistan and what is now Pakistan. Made entirely of metal or with a wood haft, it had a strongly curved blade and a hammer-headed poll and was often decorated with scroll work. Sometimes a small knife was inserted in the tabar's hollow haft.
Gallery
- Indian (Southern) tabar (axe), 18th century, the wooden haft has a steel tang running 3/4 of the way down, pinned by four rivets. The axe head is brass with a forged steel blade, L. 58 cm.
- Indian tabar-zaghnal, a combination tabar axe and zaghnal war hammer - pick, all-steel construction, 18th to 19th century
- Indian (Deccan) tabar-shishpar, an extremely rare combination tabar axe and shishpar eight-flanged mace, steel with hollow shaft, 21.75 inches, 17th to 18th century
- 18th century Indo-Persian ceremonial tabar, crafted of steel with gold koftgari inlay, Kufic calligraphy and pierced decorations
See also
References
- ↑ "Word Origins...And How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone" Oxford University Press, USA, 16 mrt. 2009 p 142
- ↑ "Kievan Russia: History of Kievan Russia's First Feudal" 1989 (digitalised in 2009). University of Virginia ISBN 5010011549 p 30
- ↑ Complete Persian culture (Dary dialect) by Gholam-reza Ensaf-pur
- ↑ "ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. Iranian influences in Armenian Language"
- ↑ "Word Origins...And How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone" Oxford University Press, USA, 16 mrt. 2009 p 142
- ↑ Sussex (2011, pp. 111–112)
- ↑ "Kievan Russia: History of Kievan Russia's First Feudal" 1989 (digitalised in 2009). University of Virginia ISBN 5010011549 p 30
- ↑ "Kievan Russia: History of Kievan Russia's First Feudal" 1989 (digitalised in 2009). University of Virginia ISBN 5010011549 p 30
Sources
- Sussex, Roland; Cubberley, Paul (2011), The Slavic Languages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29448-5