swords have stripes in the middle of soft iron. This ensures powerful
strikes by their swords and makes them non-brittle. Iron cannot withstand the cold of their country and breaks while the sword is being
wielded. When they saw their own swords, they devised the process of
making these stripes through the use of stretched twine. They also
pressed into service the native steel and the female iron. Strange designs
resulted from the marking of these furrows; and this is what they desired. Farand is not the result of industry and design; it is an accidental
product.
It would not be inappropriate here to describe what has been told me
by the knowledgeable people of India regarding the characteristics of the
swords (of India). The best kind, it is said, is the palarak (with the ba'
which is Arabicised with fa'). Good quality swords and precious daggers
of these people are made from it. It is said its steel is made from a red
sand which occurs in Qannawj. They melt it with crystalline borax, as
subtile borax is of use only for goldsmiths. This is a liquor which, on
congealing, becomes borax. The blackish colour (in the sword) is better
than the white. Another variety is called rohina. This is made from
Harawi baydat. Another variety is rnawa, and it is also made from
Harawi baydat in Multan. There are three kinds of this variety. The best
kind is known as the 'imrani. It is almost close to the palarak (in quality).
Black colour predominates in it, and it is of good quality. The most
inferior kind is the harmun, and there are intermediate kinds between
both varieties.
Yemenite swords resemble it. Close to it (in attributes) are nilaband.
There is another kind called Bakhiri which has three colours. The
original approximates to the ruhina kind. The other is the rnakhus which
is like saqlatun-makhus in which the baydat is not pounded lengthwise
but on the extremity so that it spreads and becomes saucer-like. It is
then cut in a vise and its surface is made even on its spherical sides.
Sword is forged out of it and it comes out makhus al-jawhar (that is,
black at certain places and white at others).
The third variety is the Bakhiri which includes every sword that has
no glitter whatsoever. It has no attributes nor does the name incorporate
any attribute. The rnujalla kind is also like it but for the fact that it has
the designs of plants and animals inscribed upon it. There are two kinds
of this variety. One variety has these designs inscribed up to both sides
of the back of the sword or parts of the designs on one side are carried
over to the other side. It strikes well with both edges, and its price is
equivalent to the price of a healthy elephant, if the figure inscribed
upon it is human, it is regarded as the most costly kind.
'Amr bin Ma'di Karab had a sword known as Dhu al-Nun since it had
the figure of a fish in its middle part. He says about it:
