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.

Gallery

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  Indian (Southern) tabar (axe), 18th century, the wooden haft has a steel tang running 3/4 of the way down, pinned by four rivets. The axe head is brass with a forged steel blade, L. 58 cm.

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  Indian tabar-zaghnal, a combination tabar axe and zaghnal war hammer - pick, all-steel construction, 18th to 19th century

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  Indian (Deccan) tabar-shishpar, an extremely rare combination tabar axe and shishpar eight-flanged mace, steel with hollow shaft, 21.75 inches, 17th to 18th century

See also

• Battle axe

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

• Sussex, Roland; Cubberley, Paul (2011), The Slavic Languages, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29448-5