Roads of Arabia @ Asian Art Museum

[Drunk Monk]

This exhibit charts treasures from the incense trail, an ancient thoroughfare like the Silk Road which I knew nothing about. It was a lot of really old statues, BCE stuff, that were huge and primordial, followed by some fine Greek bronze statues, and then a lot of Arabic art. Lots of stone stuff. But the best part is at the end. The sword. The exhibit ends with the sword of King Abdulaziz (1876-1953). It's a magnificent regal weapon, wrought in gold and silver, with fine wire-wrappings and intricate etchings. It's like a Tulwar in design, although I confess that I'm not as up on Middle Eastern swords (you should be impressed that I know the term Tulwar). Maybe it's like a Shamshir. It's middle eastern. It has a chain for a knuckle guard which would serve no purpose at all if someone were to actually cut your knuckles as it is a small chain and loose. While if might prevent a finger from getting severed, they would still get horribly smashed. But it's a golden chain and sure looks purty. The details of this sword are stunning, like most royal arms. I was disappointed that it was presented sheathed because that's like those black boxes covering up the naughty bits in nude photos.

The Asian has some magnificent swords and I couldn't help but peruse the rest after seeing the special exhibit. There's that spectacular Katar - the tooth of Yama - in the Indian section. The Japanese section has some nice blades, some gorgeous tsuba and a nice helmet. The Chinese stuff sucks - just some old corroded pieces that have been there forever. There's a couple of other good pieces scattered through the museum, like the jade axe, but I must say that their wall of Kris blades is the most inspiring. I always think of PPFY as it was he that first introduced me to the world of Kris blades.