The traditional ancient weapons of Islam are the most robust and beautiful, luxurious and luxurious, the most exquisitely decorated and the most artistic cold weapons in the world. In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was crowned emperor in France, led a French legion on an expedition to Egypt, where he encountered the islamic cavalry composed of Turkish, Arab, and Egyptian, and the French, who were good at muskets and artillery long-range shooting, broke it with one blow.
After defeating the Islamic Cavalry of the Middle East, Napoleon was unable to restrain his highly disciplined army. The French soldiers inadvertently found that the corpses of the enemy's dead soldiers were wearing valuable traditional cold weapons, and the gold, silver, precious stones and other dazzling inlaid on them were also scrambling to seize the loot. Although Napoleon himself could not restrain his curiosity and choose the best one to take with him, it is still displayed in the Museum of Oriental Weapons in Napoleon's mausoleum in Paris.
▲ The Islamic style of inlay craftsmanship is extremely gorgeous and dazzling
In addition, the traditional cold weapons of the Islamic peoples in the East, especially in the Middle East, still have artificial ornaments, which are roughly four types, which are summarized as follows:
1. Koftgari Koftgari, i.e. inlaid gold wire craftsmanship. This method of inlaying is to first use a sharp tool to cut, cut and cut the blade or other objects to be installed into a deep and narrow groove mark, most of which is equipped with intarsia, and then use a sharp chisel or steel wire to dig the bottom of the groove to flatten.
The pattern is carved with a small instrument called Cherma, which is extremely simple, only a drill, a nail, a hammer. The pattern is made of gold wire or silver wire as raw material, the gold leaf is first drawn into a fine and soft wire wound on a circular shaft, and the worker holds one end of the soft gold wire and throws it into a groove mark on the surface of the blade or other object, and gently presses the pad with a small diamond and a small hammer to make it embedded in the groove, smoothly connected, or convex.
Workers who have grown up in this process only see their hands holding gold wires pressing back and forth, hammering back and forth, left and right, and the gold pattern on the blade surface is not long gone. The blade is then placed in a slightly hot place, rubbed with an agate tablet called Mobari to make it bright, and then washed with a lime soup, so that the golden light is fully exposed.
▲ The inlaid gold wire on the Islamic Damascus steel machete is gorgeous and breathtaking
Gold is stuffed in the groove and its surface is suitable for the edge surface, that is, there should be a protrusion and round and plump, caressing it without hindering the fingers, and smoothing it as a whole. The hoops that are dug do not produce grooves and are strong and durable. There are often hundreds or thousands of years of ancient sword blood spots, but its golden flowers and golden inscriptions are still brilliant, as new, shining in the sun, smooth and solid as ever.
This is the special color of Islamic craftsmanship, and can be proud of those also. In recent centuries, non-Islamic people or Europeans and Americans often imitate this kind of craftsmanship, want to steal the beauty of the gold wire process and replace the gold wire with small gold leaves, its golden light is not beautiful, but it can not be convex flower shape, that is, its flat body flower shape and inscription can not last long, not to decades that there is a risk of groove breaking, which shows the difficulty of ancient craftsmanship.
2. Enamel. The enamel process is the traditional cloisonné craft that was once called in Beijing, China. This kind of cloisonné handicraft is produced in Beijing and Hankou. However, Chinese enamel is not the so-called enamel of the Islamic nation. There are two types of Gein enamel: one is Cloisonne, the Chinese cloisonné. Its legal system is on the surface of the object with a gold, silver or copper bottom, and a small copper bar or gold and silver bar is set vertically, and each of them is separated into a grid to make various flowers, birds or other models, and then the metal oxide minerals and stone chips of various colors are placed in the grid, melted with fire or gradually poured into the small grids, and after cold grinding, the light is flattened and rubbed to make the light enamel.
▲The appearance of the enamel craft on the surface of Chinese cloisonné crafts
The other is concave and convex, namely enamel of Islamic and Europeans. The method does not use lattice, but that is, various objects made of gold, silver or copper are hammered on their inner surfaces this year, so that their bodies are concave and convex, and then the natural mineral stone chips of various colors are placed in the grooves, melted with fire or gradually poured into their bodies, and must be spread all over the convex body, and after cold grinding, they are flattened and rubbed to make the light into enamel. This second method is more difficult than the first method, because there is no lattice but only a groove, and the groove is not deep, and it is curved and connected with the convexity, so the work of pouring dissolved stone is extremely difficult, and if you do not pay attention to the liquid, it will overflow and it will be a problem. Only after the achievement is more beautiful than the lattice.
The origin of the concave and convex enamel craft is very ancient, the Egyptians knew this craft more than 4,000 years ago, and the museums in Various European countries have the enamel ware made by the Egyptians with lime substrate and stone and ceramic substrate on display. According to Yun, the best ancient enamel is produced in Persia, Kashmir and delhi, Lahore, Sindh in northwestern India. Only Persian and Indian enamel is convex and concave. Ancient Chinese enamel, its white is often sandwiched with black, quite rare pure white products, while Persian, Indian white enamel is as white as snow, fine and beautiful, unfortunately rare.
▲ Islamic style machete and dagger with inlaid handle and sheath using concave and convex enamel craftsmanship
In the past, the princes of Persia, India and Nepal, Guizhou, liked to use swords with enamel handles and sheaths, especially small swords. Its enamel is extremely delicate, making flowers and birds and other patterns, and the color scheme is also very distinct. The base of the enamel is gold, silver or copper or gilded copper, and is often set in red, emerald or diamond, except for the inscriptions of flowers and birds. Its enamel is extremely strong, often more than a thousand years ago and intact as new, full of light, even if the hand falls to the ground is not broken, not such as cloisonné falling to the ground or for a long time that the pieces peel off, but its craft has been mostly lost, so far the Persians and Indians can no longer make concave and convex enamel craftsmanship similar to the ancient method.
3. Niello Niello. That is, the black ornament is inlaid on the silver bottom, which looks like black enamel. This kind of craft was originally invented by the Persians, and the handles and sheaths of ancient Iranian weapons were often decorated with this craft, and for a long time they were introduced from Persia to the Caucasus and Russia, and the people in the place were called Tula.
▲The surface appearance of the Niyelo inlay process on the silver bowl ▲ The surface appearance of the Niyello inlay process on the silver bowl
Caucasians liked the ivory handle on the sword and the gold ornament on the sheath, and used the silver skin of Niyero as the trim, the section ornament and the small belt of the long knife, and the silver skin of the Niyero as the handle and sheath of the small sword. Caucasian long and short fire bolts were also decorated with Niyello's silver skin, sometimes with gold skin. It is also used as a Niyello with a gold base, which is different in form from the Persian Niyello.
Niyello's manufacturing process is roughly as follows: silver negatives are drilled into concave flowers, birds, or other shapes, and ingredients made of silver, copper, and a small amount of lead are poured into each shallow groove, and then they are melted by fire. After cooling, rub it with borax, then bake it again and remove it, allowing it to cool down to cold. After cold and then wiped, the black light on the surface is out and smooth and too enamel. The preparation method is slightly similar to that of enamel, but the negative is thinner and softer and can be curved, which is superior to enamel. However, because it does not use ore and pigments as raw materials and replaces it with silver, copper and lead, it is easier to cooperate, the manufacturing process is relatively simple, and the result can only be a black ear.
▲ The Islamic style machete and short sword of the Niyellote craft embedded in the handle and sheath are only black
4. Bedeley Bidri. This is a process used in Central India to decorate or make sword handles and sheaths. Its various lineages are derived from the name of the city of Bider. The advantage of Bidley is that it does not change color and does not rust, so it can be durable, and Indians still use it to make daily use and clothing utensils.
The manufacturing process of Bidley is roughly as follows: the raw material of the so-called Bidley is the most important thing called The local indigenous jasta. Jasta is a type of lead or pure white lead. The British personally inspected the process: I saw Indian workers take 12,360 jastas to match with 460 grains of copper and 414 grains of tin. Most of the Jasta is poured into an earthen bucket, and the tin, copper, and the remaining small part of the Jasta are poured into the smaller ash, which is covered with dried lime and has small holes for ventilation.
The inside and outside of the two buckets are covered with cow dung. So he dug a small hole in the ground, filled it with dried cow dung cakes, and set it on fire. After the cake has been made for a certain period of time, the two buckets are placed in the hole and covered with fuel. When the worker thinks that the contents of the inside have melted, the fire hole is opened, the small bucket is taken out, and the molten liquid is poured into the large bucket, and the melt is sprinkled with ash chips. In order to prevent burning, a certain mixture of pine resin and honey is poured into the large bucket, and then the melt is poured into the model made of slaked lime when the bucket is heated for a certain period of time, and then taken out after condensation and turned into a shape on the steel machine.
▲ The handle of the Indian dagger inlaid with the Bidley process and the surface of the sheath are black and bright
Then rub it with a solution of blue gallium water (i.e., copper sulfur salt), the surface of the instrument is black, and the water washing is re-entered to reduce it slightly, so that it is easier for workers to observe the carved figures. The tool used by the workers to drill the pattern is a steel sharp diamond, which is carved and then cut into a body with a small shear of different forms, and then the small silver pieces are embedded in the grooves of the Bedeli instrument with a hammer and a diamond to make it firm.
After completion, it is rubbed and polished with clam paint and cakes made of gold sand Cornun, and then rubbed with charcoal. After polishing and polishing, it is necessary to make its black spot color permanently unchanged, but with 100% ammonium chloride, 25% crude potassium nitrate, 125% saline soil mixed with water to make a paste on beetle, and then the oil squeezed out of the large radish seeds or mustard seeds is infiltration and lightly rubbed with charcoal chips. After wiping and leaving for four days, wash with water, the black color on the Bedeley will be refreshed, and it will not be affected by cold or hot water, nor will it rust. The solidity of the blow can be broken, but it is not easy to touch and destroy, and it is not containing brittle things.
It is said that the Bedeleys were the Mongols who went west to Europe to teach local things, starting when the Mongol rulers of Central Asia, Timur and others conquered India, and were introduced by craftsmen to Delhi in northwestErn India, and then from West India to Deccan in Central India.