Original Item: Only One Available. Janbiya, also spelled janbia, jambiya, and jambia (Arabic: جنبية janbīyah), is the Arabic term for dagger, but it is generally used to describe a specific type of dagger with a short curved blade. The term janbiya is used in various Arab countries and India, it is closely associated with the people of Yemen and is prevalent among Muslim men in the Horn of Africa (primarily the Afars of Djibouti).
This is remarkably old but was brought back by a British Soldier after the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan in 1898 and had remained in a British Regimental Museum until it was closed in the 1960s and liberated by one of the Officers, from whom it was purchased.
It is totally honest and totally untouched. Its style of that of the Arab world and it could be prior to 1800. The leather of the scabbard has a wooden frame are is decorated with impressions. There is a tiny bit of age deterioration. The dagger itself is all business, a very sturdy but crude blade fitted with a protruding central rib to give the blade amazing piecing strength and the blade shows its age. The grip which may have been the third or fourth this old blade has had is of old wood and is in fine condition for it’s age. The blade, curved of 9″ (overall length 14 1/2″) is double sided and is remarkably heavy. We have not even removed the small amount of rust still to be found on the blade among the general staining.
Reeks of history and very possibly over 100 years old when it was recovered from the Omdurman Battlefield in 1898. Ready to display!