“I started collecting daggers 30 years ago, by chance, when one of my friends gave me a dagger of his father, and it was an artifact, so he was about 150 years old. I loved the dagger on that day, as it was an integrated artistic sculpture, and then I worked on collecting the rarest UAE artifacts and collections, in the forefront of which Emirati Dagger.
This is how the researcher in the field of daggers and swords, Abdullah Al-Matroushi, began his talk to «Emirates Today», confirming that the UAE dagger is one of the rarest artifacts in the Emirates, by virtue of the cessation of its use for a period of up to 60 years, pointing out that it is not considered a weapon, it is a masterpiece And the technical aspects that dyed the manufacture of the dagger may not pay attention to many, but he became an expert in it by virtue of the fact that he displays 70 daggers in the museum, some of which were obtained from Western auctions, which value and buy these pieces.
Speaking of the dagger as a masterpiece, executed completely by hand, the owner of the "House of Dagger" museum in Al Fahidi neighborhood, noted that "carrying out a piece of this difficulty is something that is appreciated, especially since people have become connoisseurs, and any work is evaluated according to the effort put in it, especially since it does not Designed automatically and through machines, the dagger is trimmed by hand and takes approximately two weeks to be fully accomplished. As for the manufacture of pods for the dagger, Al-Matroushi confirmed that the people of the Emirates have always worked in this craft, a craft that men and women participate in. The upper part of the dagger is woven by women in homes, then they hand it over to men so that they can stick the leather to the wood. The dagger starts with the design And, after its design, the wood is cut inside the dagger, then the leather is cut and the leather is drawn. Whereas the drafting stage is completed at the jeweler, in addition to the handle of the dagger, which is made of unicorn pods, or other less expensive pods.
And the dagger is not manufactured by machines, according to the owner of the Museum of the House of Dagger. It is still completely and completely handmade, even the threads are made by hand. All tools are old and exist to this day. Besides the museum, Al-Matroushi owns a workshop for making daggers. He also displays tools for his manufacture in the museum, as well as displaying it. Sizes of timber and pods, as they used elephant tusks, rhinoceros horns and giraffe horns, explaining that «pods are the most expensive, because they are sold by weight and are expensive, as the price of a rhinoceros horn is 30,000 dirhams».
Al-Matroushi displays in the museum a group of important daggers, as well as pictures of the most prominent daggers, including pictures of the daggers of the head of state located in Al Muwaiji Palace in Al Ain, noting that the old daggers are characterized by being painted with enamel, and the finest types of pods were placed for them. While the demand for daggers is present mainly by the institutions that offer it as a national gift, and the prices for daggers start from 7000 dirhams, depending on the materials used and the stones that decorate the dagger, as it can be grafted with beautiful materials, and currently modern leather is used as crocodile leather and others, but This is all to give him a contemporary without changing his look.
And the dagger is distinguished by the inscriptions, which are the difference between one dagger and another, and Al-Matroushi pointed out that in production he is keen to diversify the dagger inscriptions, explaining that the most famous inscriptions that are reproduced are the inscriptions on the dagger of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, may God rest his soul. They work to reproduce them with similar patterns, indicating that the patterns increase the aesthetic of the dagger, and they belong to the Emirati environment sometimes like branches and perfume utensils, and some of them contain the hearts of love. He explained that the dagger is not a weapon, it is a masterpiece, and for this we find that the inscriptions highlight beauty and love, but it was used for protection, and perhaps for the self-defense of animals. He stressed that the government issued legislation on how to wear and carry the dagger, and there are laws issued by the Ministry of the Interior that govern how to use it.
The advantages of the Emirati dagger
The founder of the House of the Dagger Museum, Abdullah Al Matroushi, emphasized that the UAE dagger has some specifications, as it is generally smaller than the daggers of other Gulf countries, and its length from the head of the dagger to the smallest point in it is 28 centimeters, and its width is 17 centimeters. As for what distinguishes the dagger technically, it is work, as it carries many shapes in decorations, and the small size makes it consistent with the artistic form in it, as well as appropriate when the man carries it. Al-Matroushi pointed out that visitors to the museum, especially foreigners, like the dagger and often ask about the reason for using it and do not realize that it is only for decoration. He pointed out that the number of daggers in the museum reaches 70 daggers, including 20 Emirati daggers, and the number of non-Emirati daggers is about 30, including 24 Arab daggers, and the museum has obtained some of them from auctions in the West, especially in Britain.
"The most famous engravings reproduced are those on the dagger of the late Sheikh Zayed."