Zulfiqar, sword of Ali

Nick said:

Zulfiqar was a sword with two blades Muhammed gave to Ali, his bravest warror. Who can tell me more about this famous sword and its equally famous owner? When was it made? Who made it? How did Muhammed acquire it? What were the advantages of its double-bladed design? And where is it now?

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I've never heard of this weapon, but it looks fully awesome

What is the source for it's being double bladed though? If this is based solely on a literary source than perhaps it was just meaning that it was a double-edged thrusting sword (e.g. a Roman legionary's gladius). The early Arabs did indeed use a lot of weapons based on those of the Romans...

Ali, or (Husayn ibn 'Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib) was the cousin of Muhammed.
Muḥammad presented Zulfiqar to a young Ali, By most historical accounts, Ali used the sword at the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Trench"]Battle of the Trench[/ame] to cut a fierce Meccan opponent and his shield in two halves. The opponent was Amr ibn Abdawud, whose strength was often compared to that of a thousand men. No one had dared to fight him except Ali, who killed him with one powerful blow. Though Amr wore strong armor and carried powerful weapons, he is said to have been no match to Ali and his sword. Seeing this, Muhammad was reported to have said "There is no hero but Ali and no sword except Dhū l-Fiqār" [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language"]Arabic[/ame]: لا فتى إلا علي لا سيف إلا ذو الفقار‎. Imām[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husayn_ibn_Ali"]Husayn ibn Ali[/ame] used Zulfiqar in the [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Karbala"]Battle of Karbala[/ame], and as a result it is seen as a symbol of honor and martyrdom. consider the sword to be exceptional because its bearers were both Muḥammad and Ali, who was highly regarded among Muslims and non-Muslims.
It is said that the sword came down from Heaven as a gift from Allah. So you will not find a date or origin of who made it... lost in history is the real answer.

What were the advantages of its double-bladed design?

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the sword could lock enemy's sword on its tip.

okamido said:

I came across this photo, but unfortunately I don't know how real, or what country it is from.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ihsankaracabey/

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The "bey" part at the end of the link would suggest Turkish... As does the ankara part before it. But it is presented as being Zulfiqar. Ihsankarabey is the user's name. Prolly he or she is Turkish.

plutoboyz said:

the sword could lock enemy's sword on its tip.

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How would you lock an enmy's sword on its tip?
It was not desighned to do that. Not with the tip. The tip is the weakest point for leverage. It is for cutting and thrusting. The part closest to the hilt is meant for displacing blows and stifleing blows because it has the best leverage.

okamido said:

I came across this photo, but unfortunately I don't know how real, or what country it is from.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ihsankaracabey/

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As Zeno pointed out, this is probably a Turkish weapon, I would guess late medieval at the very earliest, probably recent/modern.

Curved swords (the stereotypical "scimitar" of Western legend) were not introduced to the Dar al-Islam until the 8th Century (the Central Asian dah wielded by ghulam slave-soldiers). And even as late as the 14th Century, the artwork of the Egyptian Mamluk Dynasty depict soldiers fighting with straight or only slightly curved swords.

No form or scimitar or saber, or anything even remotely close, would have been used in Muhammad's lifetime, or a for a couple generations afterwards. Late pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabs used short stabbing swords that were modeled directly on the late Roman gladius and semispatha.

Salah ad-Din said:

I've never heard of this weapon, but it looks fully awesome

What is the source for it's being double bladed though? If this is based solely on a literary source than perhaps it was just meaning that it was a double-edged thrusting sword (e.g. a Roman legionary's gladius). .

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I think it is maentioned in the Quran though i could be mistaken.

origin of the Zulfiqar sword

The sword was not made by man. It was given to the Imam Ali (AS) by the angel gibraeel after his old sword broke during the battle of Uhud in 3AH.

The thing i know about this sword is that it was a two bladed sword, (a single curved blade with two pointed tips at the end) and it was a brutal way to finish off your enemy. Such swords gave great advantage to muslims in defeating enemies...!!!

So it was not double bladed, but rather double tipped.

Zulifigar is a legendary sword that is celebrated among both doctrines (Sunni and Shiite). However, in explanation of the sword's history the Shiite version appear more "mythical", being in line with their believe of Emam Ali's and his house divinity....

Its called "Zulfigar", meaning: the one with "Vertebrae"....such vertebrae is called "Faqra" "الفقرة" in Arabic and so the plural/adjective form is Zulfigar...

What appears in some sources is that its a Straight sword that contain that vertebraes......The other sword famous of being of two blades on the tip is just another sword of Emam Ali...

According to Sunni, the Prophet Mohammed first obtained the sword after victory at the Battle of Badir and he gifted it to Emam Ali, because Emam Ali broke 3 swords during battle....Sunnis don't elevate the origin or the significance of the sword to the level of Angel Gabriel or any other mythical story......Emam Ali actually had many swords, and not only Zulfigar was gifted to him by the Prophet....

According to Shiite, the sword's source is from Angel Gabriel and itself a descendent from Adam for which only Prophets should carry it....

To my memory, fragments of the sword survive in the Topkapi palace....

In Arab history, many swords gained great fame along with Emam Ali's Zulfigar.....a very famous one is "Al-Sumsaam", which is said to survive since pre-Islam until Abbassid age, and were called by that name to mean: the sword that cannot bend or break.....Caliph Haroun tried it on 10 of the finest Indian blades and Al-Sumsaam broke them all....

I've attached a cover of a book on the Prophet's swords, showing Zulfigar...

In Turkey, it's one of the symbols of Alevi people or Alevism; many of them wear it as a pendant. Zülfikar was also the name of a journal published by the PKK to reach out to the Alevi Kurds.

That's the Zülfikâr according to the Alevi:

Salah said:

As Zeno pointed out, this is probably a Turkish weapon, I would guess late medieval at the very earliest, probably recent/modern.

Curved swords (the stereotypical "scimitar" of Western legend) were not introduced to the Dar al-Islam until the 8th Century (the Central Asian dah wielded by ghulam slave-soldiers). And even as late as the 14th Century, the artwork of the Egyptian Mamluk Dynasty depict soldiers fighting with straight or only slightly curved swords.

No form or scimitar or saber, or anything even remotely close, would have been used in Muhammad's lifetime, or a for a couple generations afterwards. Late pre-Islamic and early Islamic Arabs used short stabbing swords that were modeled directly on the late Roman gladius and semispatha.

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Many Arabs or other Middle Easterners like Persians and Indians would doubt that Salah.....

- Curvature as a concept was known to the Middle East since ages....some Egyptian and Meopotamian weapons like the Kopesh show that...

- Curvature of the sword is apparent in Arabic literature in pre-Islamic poetry....there are poems where women's eyelashes or eyebrows are likened to the sword...

- Arabs have known Indian blades, and those were curved swords, but some analyse that this curvature is not to the extent of Turkic swords.

- I've attached a photo here of a famous Prophet Mohammed sword called "Al-Makhdam"...its clearly curved and the source says its in Topkapi in Istanbul...

In anyway, I don't think such concept of sword curvature would have to be brought through Turkic tribes by passing older civilizations like Middle Eastern, Indian, Persian, Chinese....