Omani men carried personal weapons until relatively recent years. Swords and daggers were part of daily life attire and are still worn in social events. Thanks to its political independence, Oman developed unique types of weaponry like the saif sword, which descends from the swords used in the early Islamic period, and the kattara sword that was influenced by the swordsmanship tradition of East Africa. A central role is played by the curved dagger that, common throughout the region, has a special declination in the Omani khanjar. Traditional Omani weaponry includes also the characteristic round terrs shields and the small jertz and qaddum axes, used in the Musandam Peninsula and in the Wahiba sands. This book describes all these main types of Omani edged weapons, their origin, structure and accessories, with the support of a large amount of illustrations and constant reference to specimens from museums and private collections in Oman. The book includes also a long and detailed appendix about one of the most exciting discoveries by the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, the so-called Desert Lord of Sinaw, buried almost two thousand years ago with a long iron sword and two iron daggers.

This book presents a detailed overview of the firearms used in Oman over the last four centuries. Portable firearms were brought into the Arabian Gulf by the Portuguese, but there is no trace of these early weapons the region. In Oman, the typical matchlock guns with decorated Indian barrels were highly esteemed and they were passed from generation to generation as a family heritage. Matchlock guns were replaced only by breech-loading Martini Henry rifles at the end of the 19th century, when Muscat became the major firearms' entrepot in the Arabian Gulf with hundreds of thousands of breech loading rifles re-exported throughout the whole region up to Afghanistan and Persia. The Martini Henry rifle and its variants were by far the most common weapon and Belgian made Martini Henry were specifically engraved for the Muscat market. Cannon entered the country in great number mostly as ordnances on Royal Navy ships and they are now kept in forts, towers and fortified buildings across the entire Oman. The weapons described in this book are mostly from the National Museum and Bait al Zubair Museum in Muscat.