Sword

A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed tip. A slashing sword is more likely to be curved and to have a sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade. Many swords are designed for both thrusting and slashing. The precise definition of a sword varies by historical epoch and geographic region.

Historically, the sword developed in the

The use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or, in a modern context, as fencing. In the early modern period, western sword design diverged into two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabres.

Thrusting swords such as the rapier and eventually the smallsword were designed to impale their targets quickly and inflict deep stab wounds. Their long and straight yet light and well balanced design made them highly maneuverable and deadly in a duel but fairly ineffective when used in a slashing or chopping motion. A well aimed lunge and thrust could end a fight in seconds with just the sword's point, leading to the development of a fighting style which closely resembles modern fencing.

Slashing swords such as the sabre and similar blades such as the cutlass were built more heavily and were more typically used in warfare. Built for slashing and chopping at multiple enemies, often from horseback, the sabre's long curved blade and slightly forward weight balance gave it a deadly character all its own on the battlefield. Most sabres also had sharp points and double-edged blades, making them capable of piercing soldier after soldier in a cavalry charge. Sabres continued to see battlefield use until the early 20th century. The US Navy M1917 Cutlass used in World War I, was kept in their armory well into World War II and many Marines were issued a variant called the M1941 Cutlass as a makeshift jungle machete during the Pacific War.^[2][3]

Non-European weapons classified as swords include single-edged weapons such as the Middle Eastern scimitar, the Chinese dao and the related Japanese katana. The Chinese jiàn 剑 is an example of a non-European double-edged sword, like the European models derived from the double-edged Iron Age sword.

History

Prehistory and antiquity

Bronze Age

The first weapons that can be described as "swords" date to around 3300 BC. They have been found in

The sword developed from the knife or dagger. The sword became differentiated from the dagger during the Bronze Age (c. 3000 BC), when copper and bronze weapons were produced with long leaf-shaped blades and with hilts consisting of an extension of the blade in handle form. A knife is unlike a dagger in that a knife has only one cutting surface, while a dagger has two cutting surfaces.^[6] Construction of longer blades became possible during the 3rd millennium BC in the Middle East, first in arsenic copper, then in tin-bronze.^[7]

Blades longer than 60 cm (24 in) were rare and not practical until the late Bronze Age because the

Iron became increasingly common from the 13th century BC. Before that the use of swords was less frequent. The iron was not quench-hardened although often containing sufficient carbon, but work-hardened like bronze by hammering. This made them comparable or only slightly better in terms of strength and hardness to bronze swords. They could still bend during use rather than spring back into shape. But the easier production, and the better availability of the raw material for the first time permitted the equipping of entire armies with metal weapons, though Bronze Age Egyptian armies were sometimes fully equipped with bronze weapons.^[19]

Ancient swords are often found at burial sites. The sword was often placed on the right side of the corpse. Many times the sword was kept over the corpse. In many late Iron Age graves, the sword and the scabbard were bent at 180 degrees. It was known as killing the sword. Thus they might have considered swords as the most potent and powerful object.^[20]

Indian antiquity

High-carbon steel for swords, which would later appear as

By the time of

Swords from the Parthian and Sassanian Empires were quite long, the blades on some late Sassanian swords being just under a metre long.[27]

Swords were also used to administer various

In the first millennium BC, the Persian armies used a sword that was originally of Scythian design called the akinaka (acinaces).^[29] However, the great conquests of the Persians made the sword more famous as a Persian weapon, to the extent that the true nature of the weapon has been lost somewhat as the name akinaka has been used to refer to whichever form of sword the Persian army favoured at the time.^[30]

It is widely believed that the original akinaka was a 35 to 45 cm (14 to 18 inch) double-edged sword. The design was not uniform and in fact identification is made more on the nature of the scabbard than the weapon itself; the scabbard usually has a large, decorative mount allowing it to be suspended from a belt on the wearer's right side. Because of this, it is assumed that the sword was intended to be drawn with the blade pointing downwards ready for surprise stabbing attacks.

In the 12th century, the

During the

Around the 10th century, the use of properly quenched hardened and tempered steel started to become much more common than in previous periods. The Frankish 'Ulfberht' blades (the name of the maker inlaid in the blade) were of particularly consistent high quality.^[32] Charles the Bald tried to prohibit the export of these swords, as they were used by Vikings in raids against the Franks.

Wootz steel (which is also known as Damascus steel) was a unique and highly prized steel developed on the Indian subcontinent as early as the 5th century BC. Its properties were unique due to the special smelting and reworking of the steel creating networks of iron carbides described as a globular cementite in a matrix of pearlite. The use of Damascus steel in swords became extremely popular in the 16th and 17th centuries.^{[nb 1][33]}

It was only from the 11th century that

It was during the 14th century, with the growing use of more advanced armour, that the hand and a half sword, also known as a "bastard sword", came into being. It had an extended grip that meant it could be used with either one or two hands. Though these swords did not provide a full two-hand grip they allowed their wielders to hold a shield or parrying dagger in their off hand, or to use it as a two-handed sword for a more powerful blow.^[35]

In the Middle Ages, the sword was often used as a symbol of the

From around 1300 to 1500, in concert with improved

The estoc became popular because of its ability to thrust into the gaps between plates of armour.^[38] The grip was sometimes wrapped in wire or coarse animal hide to provide a better grip and to make it harder to knock a sword out of the user's hand.^[39]

A number of manuscripts covering longsword combat and techniques dating from the 13th–16th centuries exist in German,^[40] Italian, and English,^[41] providing extensive information on longsword combatives as used throughout this period. Many of these are now readily available online.^[40][41]

In the 16th century, the large zweihänder was used by the elite German and Swiss mercenaries known as doppelsöldners.^[42] Zweihänder, literally translated, means two-hander. The zweihänder possesses a long blade, as well as a huge guard for protection. It is estimated that some zweihänder swords were over 6 feet (1.8 m) long, with the one ascribed to Frisian warrior Pier Gerlofs Donia being 7 feet (2.13 m) long.^[43] The gigantic blade length was perfectly designed for manipulating and pushing away enemy polearms, which were major weapons around this time, in both Germany and Eastern Europe. Doppelsöldners also used katzbalgers, which means 'cat-gutter'. The katzbalger's S-shaped guard and 2-foot-long (0.61 m) blade made it perfect for bringing in when the fighting became too close to use a zweihänder.^[44]

Civilian use of swords became increasingly common during the late Renaissance, with duels being a preferred way to honourably settle disputes.

The side-sword was a type of war sword used by infantry during the Renaissance of Europe. This sword was a direct descendant of the knightly sword. Quite popular between the 16th and 17th centuries, they were ideal for handling the mix of armoured and unarmoured opponents of that time. A new technique of placing one's finger on the ricasso to improve the grip (a practice that would continue in the rapier) led to the production of hilts with a guard for the finger. This sword design eventually led to the development of the civilian rapier, but it was not replaced by it, and the side-sword continued to be used during the rapier's lifetime. As it could be used for both cutting and thrusting, the term "cut and thrust sword" is sometimes used interchangeably with side-sword.^[45] As rapiers became more popular, attempts were made to hybridize the blade, sacrificing the effectiveness found in each unique weapon design. These are still considered side-swords and are sometimes labeled sword rapier or cutting rapier by modern collectors.

Side-swords used in conjunction with bucklers became so popular that it caused the term swashbuckler to be coined. This word stems from the new fighting style of the side-sword and buckler which was filled with much "swashing and making a noise on the buckler".^[46]

Within the Ottoman Empire, the use of a curved sabre called the yatagan started in the mid-16th century. It would become the weapon of choice for many in Turkey and the Balkans.^[47]

The sword in this time period was the most personal weapon, the most prestigious, and the most versatile for close combat, but it came to decline in military use as technology, such as the

• 
  Kilij
• 
  Shamshir

Africa

The takoba is a type of broadsword originating in the western Sahel, descended from various Byzantine and Islamic swords. It has a straight double-edged blade measuring about one meter in length, usually imported from Europe.^[50][51]

Abyssinian swords related to the Persian shamshir are known as shotel.^[52] The Asante people adopted swords under the name of akrafena. They are still used today in ceremonies, such as the Odwira festival.^[53][54]

East Asia

As steel technology improved, single-edged weapons became popular throughout Asia. Derived from the Chinese jian or dao, the Korean hwandudaedo are known from the early medieval Three Kingdoms. Production of the Japanese tachi, a precursor to the katana, is recorded from c. AD 900 (see Japanese sword).^[55]

Japan was famous for the swords it forged in the early 13th century for the class of warrior-nobility known as the Samurai. Western historians have said that Japanese katana were among the finest cutting weapons in world military history.^[56][57][58] The types of swords used by the Samurai included the ōdachi (extra long field sword), tachi (long cavalry sword), katana (long sword), and wakizashi (shorter companion sword for katana). Japanese swords that pre-date the rise of the samurai caste include the tsurugi (straight double-edged blade) and chokutō (straight one-edged blade).^[59] Japanese swordmaking reached the height of its development in the 15th and 16th centuries, when samurai increasingly found a need for a sword to use in closer quarters, leading to the creation of the modern katana.^[60] High quality Japanese swords have been exported to neighboring Asian countries since before the 11th century. From the 15th century to the 16th century, more than 200,000 swords were exported, reaching a quantitative peak, but these were simple swords made exclusively for mass production, specialized for export and lending to conscripted farmers (ashigaru).^[61][62][63]

South Asia

The

The

Rajputs.^[67]

The

Hindi: तलवार) is a type of curved sword from India and other countries of the Indian subcontinent, it was adopted by communities such as Rajputs, Sikhs and Marathas, who favored the sword as their main weapon. It became more widespread in the medieval era.^[68][69]

The urumi (Tamil: சுருள் பட்டாக்கத்தி surul pattai, lit. curling blade; Sinhala: එතුණු කඩුව ethunu kaduwa; Hindi: aara) is a "sword" with a flexible whip-like blade.^[70]

• 
  Talwar
• 
  Pata
• 
  Firangi

Southeast Asia

In Indonesia, the images of Indian style swords can be found in Hindu gods statues from ancient Java circa 8th to 10th century. However the native types of blade known as kris, parang, klewang and golok were more popular as weapons. These daggers are shorter than a sword but longer than a common dagger.

In the

Japanese took control of the country, several American special operations groups stationed in the Philippines were introduced to Filipino martial arts and swordsmanship, leading to this style reaching America despite the fact that natives were reluctant to allow outsiders in on their fighting secrets.^[73]

Pre-Columbian Americas

The

Olmecs, Toltecs, and Mixtecs

.

Pacific Islands

In the Gilbert Islands, the native Kiribati people have developed a type of broadsword made from shark teeth, which serves a similar function to the leiomano used by the Native Hawaiians.

Early modern history

Military sword

Further information: Basket-hilted sword, Backsword, and Sabre

A single-edged type of

Early Modern Switzerland.^[75]

The

Swedish army from the time of Gustavus Adolphus until as late as the 1850s.^[80]

Duelling sword

Further information: Rapier and Small sword

The

schiavona developed the crossguard into a basket-shaped guard for hand protection.^[83]

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the shorter

dueling swords well into the 18th century.^[84]

As the wearing of swords fell out of fashion,

la canne developed to fight with canes and swordsticks and has now evolved into a sport. The English martial art singlestick

is very similar. With the rise of the

epées persisted well into the 20th century in France. Such modern duels were not fought to the death; the duellists' aim was instead merely to draw blood from the opponent's sword arm.^[86]

Late modern history

Military sidearm

Towards the end of its useful life, the sword served more as a weapon of

Modern Age. Even as a personal sidearm, the sword began to lose its preeminence in the early 19th century, reflecting the development of reliable handguns.^[48]

However, swords were still normally carried in

Royal Dutch East Indies Army, Royal Dutch Army, Royal Dutch Navy and Dutch police used these cutlasses called Klewang.^[87][88]

Swords continued in general peacetime use by cavalry of most armies during the years prior to World War I. The British Army formally adopted a completely new design of

cavalry sword in 1908, almost the last change in British Army weapons before the outbreak of the war.^[89] At the outbreak of World War I infantry officers in all combatant armies then involved (French, German, British, Austro-Hungarian, Russian, Belgian and Serbian) still carried swords as part of their field equipment. On mobilization in August 1914 all serving British Army officers were required to have their swords sharpened as the only peacetime use of the weapon had been for saluting on parade.^[90] The high visibility and limited practical use of the sword however led to it being abandoned within weeks, although most cavalry continued to carry sabres throughout the war. While retained as a symbol of rank and status by at least senior officers of infantry, artillery and other branches, the sword was usually left with non-essential baggage when units reached the front line.^[91]

It was not until the late 1920s and early 1930s that this historic weapon was finally discarded for all but ceremonial purposes by most remaining horse mounted regiments of Europe and the Americas.

In China troops used the long anti-cavalry

miao dao well into the Second Sino-Japanese War. The last units of British heavy cavalry switched to using armoured vehicles as late as 1938. Swords and other dedicated melee weapons were used occasionally by many countries during World War II, but typically as a secondary weapon as they were outclassed by coexisting firearms.^[92][93][94] A notable exception was the Imperial Japanese Army where, for cultural reasons, all officers and warrant officers carried the shin-gunto ("new military sword") into battle from 1934 until 1945.^[95]

Ceremonial use

Further information: Sword of state

Swords are commonly worn as a ceremonial item by officers in many military and naval services throughout the world. Occasions to wear swords include any event in dress uniforms where the rank-and-file carry arms: parades, reviews, courts-martial, tattoos, and changes of command. They are also commonly worn for officers' weddings, and when wearing dress uniforms to church—although they are rarely actually worn in the church itself.

In the British forces they are also worn for any appearance at

Chief Petty Officers

.

In the

U.S. Marine Corps every officer must own a sword, which is prescribed for formal parades and other ceremonies where dress uniforms are worn and the rank-and-file are under arms. On these occasions depending on their billet, Marine Non-Commissioned Officers (E-4 and above) may also be required to carry swords, which have hilts of a pattern similar to U.S. Naval officers' swords but are actually sabres. The USMC Model 1859 NCO Sword

is the longest continuously issued edged weapon in the U.S. inventory

The Marine officer swords are of the Mameluke pattern which was adopted in 1825 in recognition of the Marines' key role in the capture of the Tripolitan city of Derna during the First Barbary War.^[96] Taken out of issue for approximately 20 years from 1855 until 1875, it was restored to service in the year of the Corps' centennial and has remained in issue since.

Religious

In the occult practices of Wicca, a sword or knife often referred to as an athame is used as a magical tool.^[97]

Sword replicas

The production of replicas of historical swords originates with 19th-century historicism.^[98] Contemporary replicas can range from cheap factory produced look-alikes to exact recreations of individual artifacts, including an approximation of the historical production methods.

Some kinds of swords are still commonly used today as weapons, often as a side arm for military infantry. The Japanese

shortsword and the machete.^[99]

• In the case of a rat-tail tang, the maker welds a thin rod to the end of the blade at the crossguard; this rod goes through the grip.^[100]
• In traditional construction, Swordsmiths peened such tangs over the end of the pommel, or occasionally welded the hilt furniture to the tang and threaded the end for screwing on a pommel. This style is often referred to as a "narrow" or "hidden" tang. Modern, less traditional, replicas often feature a threaded pommel or a pommel nut which holds the hilt together and allows dismantling.^{[citation needed]}
• In a "full" tang (most commonly used in knives and machetes), the tang has about the same width as the blade, and is generally the same shape as the grip.^[101] In European or Asian swords sold today, many advertised "full" tangs may actually involve a forged rat-tail tang.

Morphology

Further information: Classification of swords

The sword consists of the blade and the hilt. The term scabbard applies to the cover for the sword blade when not in use.

Blade

Main articles:

Sword blade and Oakeshott typology

Parts of a sword

There is considerable variation in the detailed design of sword blades. The diagram opposite shows a typical Medieval European sword.

Early iron blades have rounded points due to the limited metallurgy of the time. These were still effective for thrusting against lightly armoured opponents. As armour advanced, blades were made narrower, stiffer and sharply pointed to defeat the armour by thrusting.

Dedicated cutting blades are wide and thin, and often have grooves known as

fullers which lighten the blade at the cost of some of the blade's stiffness. The edges of a cutting sword are almost parallel. Blades oriented for the thrust have thicker blades, sometimes with a distinct midrib for increased stiffness, with a strong taper and an acute point. The geometry of a cutting sword blade allows for acute edge angles. An edge with an acuter angle is more inclined to degrade quickly in combat situations than an edge with a more obtuse angle. Also, an acute edge angle is not the primary factor of a blade's sharpness.^[102]

The part of the blade between the

center of balance

(CoB) and the hilt is the forte (strong). The section in between the CoP and the CoB is the middle.

The ricasso or shoulder identifies a short section of blade immediately below the guard that is left completely unsharpened. Many swords have no ricasso. On some large weapons, such as the German Zweihänder, a metal cover surrounded the ricasso, and a swordsman might grip it in one hand to wield the weapon more easily in close-quarter combat.^[44] The ricasso normally bears the maker's mark.

The tang is the extension of the blade to which the hilt is fitted.

On Japanese blades, the maker's mark appears on the tang under the grip.^[103]

Hilt

Main article: Hilt

The

quillons). The pommel was originally designed as a stop to prevent the sword slipping from the hand. From around the 11th century onward it became a counterbalance to the blade, allowing a more fluid style of fighting.^{[dubious – discuss][104]}

It can also be used as a blunt instrument at close range, and its weight affects the centre of percussion. In later times a

dueling swords had developed elaborate basket hilts, which protect the palm of the wielder and rendered the gauntlet obsolete.^[105]

In late medieval and Renaissance era European swords, a flap of leather called the chappe or rain guard was attached to a sword's crossguard at the base of the hilt to protect the mouth of the scabbard and prevent water from entering.^[106]

Sword scabbards and suspension

Main article: Scabbard

Common accessories to the sword include the scabbard, baldric as well as the 'sword belt'.

• The scabbard, also known as the sheath, is a protective cover often provided for the sword blade. Over the millennia, scabbards have been made of many materials, including leather, wood, and metals such as brass or steel. The metal fitting where the blade enters the leather or metal scabbard is called the throat, which is often part of a larger scabbard mount, or locket, that bears a carrying ring or stud to facilitate wearing the sword. The blade's point in leather scabbards is usually protected by a metal tip, or chape, which on both leather and metal scabbards is often given further protection from wear by an extension called a drag, or shoe.^[107]
• A sword belt is a
  Roman legionary.^[108] Swords and sword belts continue in use for ceremonial occasions by military forces.^[109][110]

Typology

Main articles: Types of swords and Classification of swords

Sword typology is based on morphological criteria on the one hand (blade shape (cross-section, taper, and length), shape and size of the hilt and pommel), and age and place of origin on the other (Bronze Age, Iron Age, European (medieval, early modern, modern), Asian).

The relatively comprehensive

arming sword.^[83]

Single vs. double-edged

As noted above, the terms

great sword, and Gaelic claymore

are used relative to the era under consideration, and each term designates a particular type of sword.

Jian

In most Asian countries, a sword (jian 劍, geom (검), ken/tsurugi (剣) is a double-edged straight-bladed weapon, while a knife or sabre (dāo 刀, do (도), to/katana (刀) refers to a single-edged object.

Kirpan

Among the Sikhs, the sword is held in very high esteem. A single-edged sword is called a kirpan, and its double-edged counterpart a khanda or tegha.^[111]

Churika

The

Malabar region of Kerala. It is also worshipped as the weapon of Vettakkorumakan

, the hunter god in Hinduism.

Backsword and falchion

European terminology does give generic names for single-edged and double-edged blades but refers to specific types with the term 'sword' covering them all. For example, the backsword may be so called because it is single-edged but the falchion which is also single-edged is given its own specific name.^[112]

Single vs. two-handed use

Two-handed

See also:

Two-handed sword

A two-handed sword is any sword that usually requires two hands to wield, or more specifically the very large swords of the 16th century.^[104]

Throughout history two-handed swords have generally been less common than their one-handed counterparts, one exception being their common use in Japan. Two-handed grips have two advantages: obviously they allow the strength of two hands to be used, not just one, but by spacing the hands apart they also allow a torque to be applied, rotating the sword in a slashing manner.

A two-handed grip may be needed for one of two reasons: either to wield a particularly large sword or else with the single-sided Japanese tachi for a slashing cut. Slashing swords may have distinctively long hilt grips to facilitate this.

Hand and a half sword

A Hand and a half sword, colloquially known as a "

two-handed sword, or Zweihänder

, which were always intended to be used with two hands.

Laws on carrying a sword

The

capitularies made ownership of a sword mandatory, for example, those who owned a warehouse needed to also own a sword.^[113]

In fiction

Main article: List of fictional swords

In fantasy, magic swords often appear, based on their use in myth and legend. The science fiction counterpart to these is known as an energy sword (sometimes also referred to as a "beam sword" or "laser sword"), a sword whose blade consists of, or is augmented by, concentrated energy. A well known example of this type of sword is the lightsaber, shown in the Star Wars franchise.^[114]

See also

• Arabic swords
• Chinese swords
• Classification of swords
• Japanese swords
• List of blade materials
• List of sword manufacturers
• List of swords
• Oakeshott typology
• Sword making
• Swordsmanship
• Types of swords
• Waster

References

Footnotes

1. ^ "Pattern-Welding and Damascening of Sword-Blades: Part 1 Pattern-Welding" (Maryon 1960)^[33]
   A brief review article by the originator of the term "pattern-welding" accurately details all the salient points of the construction of pattern-welded blades and of how all the patterns observed result as a function of the depth of grinding into a twisted rod structure. The article also includes a brief description of pattern-welding as encountered in the Malay keris. Damascus steel is also known as watered steel.

Citations

1. ^ cognate to Old High German swert, Old Norse sverð, from a Proto-Indo-European root *swer- "to wound, to cut". Before about 1500, the spelling swerd(e) was much more common than sword(e). The irregular loss of /w/ in English pronunciation also dates to about 1500, and is found in a small number of other words, such as answer (cf. swear), conquer (cf. query). Charles Barber, Joan Beal, Philip Shaw, The English Language, Canto Classics, 2nd revised edition, Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 206 Archived 13 March 2017 at the Wayback Machine. Latin had
   epée. Both gladius and spatha are loanwords in Latin; ensis was the generic term for "sword" in Classical Latin
   , and was again widely used in Renaissance Latin, while Middle Latin mostly used gladius as the generic term.
2. ^ Clements, J., & Hertz, B. (n.d.). The Myth of Thrusting versus Cutting Swords. https://www.thearma.org/essays/thrusting_vs_cutting.html
3. ^ Wagner, R. (n.d.). Focus on the M1917/M1941 Cutlass. Angelfire. https://www.angelfire.com/wa/swordcollector/cutlass.html
4. ^ Frangipane, M. et.al. (2010). "The collapse of the 4th millennium centralised system at Arslantepe and the far-reaching changes in 3rd millennium societies". ORIGINI XXXIV, 2012: 237–60.
5. ^
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6. ^ "sword | weapon | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
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11. ^ PutraDanayu (30 March 2021). Sword: Tell about sword in human history. Putra Ayu.^{[permanent dead link]}
12. ^ Jung, R.; M. Mehofer (2008). "A sword of Naue II type from Ugarit and the Historical Significance of Italian type Weaponry in the Eastern Mediterranean", Aegean Archaeology 8, 111–36.
13. ISBN 978-0-691-02591-9.^{[clarification needed}
    ]
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18. ^ ^{a b c} Allchin, pp. 111–14.
19. ^ Burton, p. 78.
20. ^ Wells, Peter (2017), How Ancient Europeans Saw the World : Vision, Patterns, and the Shaping of the Mind in Prehistoric Times, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton UP, p. 124
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32. ISBN 978-0-511-03025-3
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33. ^
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34. ISBN 0-8240-7644-3
35. ^ Gravett, p. 47
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38. ^ Tarassuk, Leonid; Blair, Claude (1982). The Complete Encyclopedia of Arms & Weapons: The Most Comprehensive Reference Work Ever Published on Arms and Armour from Prehistoric Times to the Present – with Over 1,200 Illustrations. Simon & Schuster. p. 491.
39. ^ ^{a b} McLean, p. 178.
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45. ^ The term cut & thrust is a non-historical classification first used within The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts to differentiate cutting swords with compound hilts from true rapiers.
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• Burton, Richard F. (2008).The Book of The Sword. Cosimo, Inc.
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• Comnena, Anna. (1928). The Alexiad. Ed. and trans. Elizabeth A. Dawes. London: Routledge. Available at the Internet History Sourcebook Archived 6 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine
• Edgerton; et al. (2002). Indian and Oriental Arms and Armour. Courier Dover Publications.
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External links

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