Shamshir

The shamshir is a type of Persian sword with a pronounced curve, its name combining the Persian words for fang and lion. It developed from Central Asian curved sabre designs that reached Persia through the Seljuk Khanate in the twelfth century and the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth, and the distinctive shamshir form had taken its recognizable shape by the sixteenth century. The blade is slim and heavily curved with little taper, mounted with an offset pommel and long quillons, and was built for slashing rather than thrusting, often forged from patterned wootz steel.