Rare complete and antique Omani Sa'idiyyah Khanjar / Royal khanjar.
Rhino horn hilt embellished with silver rosettes, filigree work, granulation, wire-work, beaded wire. The dagger sheath is made of wood encased in leather and wrapped in silver thread, with plaques of silver wire-work, granulation and beaded wire.
The dagger sheath has four large silver rings (and three linked smaller ones) which are hooked on a woven textile belt with a silver buckle, so seven rings in total. The belt is woven from gold or silver threat. The old buckle is cast from silver using cuttlefish-shell (see pattern on the back of the buckle)
Compare the one in the British museum Ingrams collection. Ref 2 Stuhlmann 1910 mentions that these khanjars generally have inferior blades (bought very cheaply in Solingen) thereby defusing the myth that old Omani khanjars normally had high quality blades. Ref 2 Stuhlmann 1910 page 127 also refers to the filigree silver work on the khanjars, curved silver powder horns and silver tubes (in bandoleers) that used were used in the past by the irregular soldiers of the Sultan. He also mentions that these khanjars were normally not made in Zanzibar but in Arabia
