Gladius Iraqianus

[Marcus F.]

I just saw this accidentally in the web-news. Shiite Muslims celebrating Ashura and waving swords that look amazingly like Roman ones. Does anybody know, how old this sword-design is and wether it was maybe inspired by the Roman empire?

[M. Demetrius]

They do look a bit like gladii. They look also like they'd do the job intended pretty well. hock:

[scythius]

That, my friends is, the famed Iraqi qama - the shape is the same as the kindjal found all over the Caucausus, Crimea, and bits of real estate nearby, but the folks in what is now Iraq ramped it up to gladius size.

I have some lovely old pieces in my collection (ranging from C. 1950, back to about C. 1780) and they are remarkably similar in size to each other, as well as my repro gladii.

Can't really improve on good design - why bother trying?

[john m roberts]

On his Legio XX site, Matt Amt has instructions on converting a Museum Replicas qama into a gladius.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

There is a hunting dagger from georgia tha tis similar, if a little smaller.
The repouse work on the scabbard and grip is pretty nice.