Customer Reviews

Medieval Islamic Swords and Swordmaking

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Although we have all seen the drawings and tapestries from the middle ages showing Islamic warriors carrying swords, there is very little available on the technical aspects of these weapons.

There are several reasons for this:

Historically we have paid a lot more attention to the history, both political and technological of Europe than we have to the Middle East.

There wasn't a great deal written about such subjects anyway. The technology involved were closely guarded secrets of the family/clan/village that produced the swords. Publishing these secrets would allow others to capitalize on this knowledge.

A lot of the material that was written was lost, or perhaps deliberately destroyed as it did not necessarily reflect on the religious ferver of the people.

This book is a new translation of several documents that were written in the time as well as other documents that were written later but never available before in English. It is, perhaps the best source available, not only on swords, but on the production of iron and steel during the time. The authors are not only translators, but experts on the subject. Their commentary goes a long way to describing the meaning behind the actual translations.

This book is a welcome addition to the library of the history of metalworking.