Tabar (axe)

Indian (Sind) tabar battle axe, late 18th century or earlier, crescent shape 5-inch-long head with a square hammer opposite of the blade, 22-inch-long steel haft, the end of the haft unscrews to reveal a 5-inch slim blade. Heavily patinated head and handle with traces of engraving.

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.

See also

References

  1. "Word Origins...And How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone" Oxford University Press, USA, 16 mrt. 2009 p 142
  2. "Kievan Russia: History of Kievan Russia's First Feudal" 1989 (digitalised in 2009). University of Virginia ISBN 5010011549 p 30
  3. Complete Persian culture (Dary dialect) by Gholam-reza Ensaf-pur
  4. "ARMENIA AND IRAN iv. Iranian influences in Armenian Language"
  5. "Word Origins...And How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone" Oxford University Press, USA, 16 mrt. 2009 p 142
  6. Sussex (2011, pp. 111–112)
  7. "Kievan Russia: History of Kievan Russia's First Feudal" 1989 (digitalised in 2009). University of Virginia ISBN 5010011549 p 30
  8. "Kievan Russia: History of Kievan Russia's First Feudal" 1989 (digitalised in 2009). University of Virginia ISBN 5010011549 p 30

Sources

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