Talk:Scimitar

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[edit] Video Game and Roleplaying Fanboyism

Look, I'm a video game nerd myself, but this is an encyclopedia, not a gaming web site. This article contains two and a half lines of factual information followed by a page of fanboy trivia garbage. Why is it that nerds feel obligated to fill every article related to weapons or anything Japanese with a list of video games or anime in which they appear? You'll notice that the "Apple" article does not contain a list of every book and movie in which a character ever consumed an apple, nor does the "Pants" article have a list of famous pant-wearers; this is because it's not encyclopedic information. A scimitar is a type of sword; of course half of the fantasy games out there have them. Someone needs to start a "Purge Wikipedia of Fanboyism" project.

You're quite right, though there's no need for name-calling. I will attempt a revision. - Mcasey666 20:06, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Drizzt Do'Urden

Is it really relevant to have that banal comment about a Forgotten Realms character at the end? If it's in there at all, should it not be subordinated in a "Misc." or "Fiction" section? Really, it tarnishes the article.

I moved it into a separate section, but it belongs in the article; Drizzt Do'Urden's use of scimitars is among the most famous modern fictional uses of scimitars, and he is notable in that he does not come from a Middle Eastern culture. —Lowellian (talk)[[]] 03:14, Oct 28, 2004 (UTC)

Scimitars are also common in Dungeons & Dragons, and all of the video games based on it, often being used by druids.-LtNOWIS 22:30, 22 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Although Drizzt does not come from a Middle Eastern culture, his role within the Forgotten Realms has an analogue in the 'Good Saracen' of Medieval and Modern literature. It might be noted that he bears also a passing similarity to the fictional dual Scimitar wielding Saracen character 'Nasir', from the 1980s Television Series 'Robin of Sherwood.' Indeed, it could be argued that broad similarities are being unintentionally invoked in D&D Drow to popular conceptions of the 'Pagan Other'. Dark Skinned, powerful, worshippers of evil God(s), controlled by women and so on. Not accurate conceptions, mind you, just popular ones. Scimitars are a natural choice for this character when viewed from such a persepective...

[edit] swords?

check the article on swords...technically a sword, by definition, has 2 cutting blades.

scimitars aren't really swords.

Reread that article. At least as it currently stands, swords "usually" have two edges. I don't think I've ever seen anyone argue that sabres, scimitars, katanas, falcatas and so on are not swords. --Iustinus 01:58, 18 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Scimitar sub-types?

I wonder: is there is any distinguishing done between types of scimitars? It seems to me that scimitars bearing similar lines to the shamshir are rather different from the heavier swords dubbed scimitars in the movies (here I'm thinking especially of Azeem's sword from "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"). Obviously, that weapon was custom-made for the film, but it still is a lot closer to the depictions of scimitars that I remember from history books and the like (e.g., long, heavy blade, widening toward the tip, with a recurved "hook" between the tips of the front and rear cutting surfaces). Sacxpert 00:11, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Scimitar and Shamshir

First, I believe I must disclaim myself. I am primarily focused in western european weaponry, armoury, and martial arts and know little of anything much east of Italy or Germany. I have been taught, however, and read in countless published texts, that these swords are in fact the same, but under two different names. What is the physical or geographical differentiation between the two? It seems that both have exactly the same physical characteristics and existed at the exact same time in the exact same place. The wikipedia articles provide no clear differentiation, and no text I have found (aside from the Oxford Dictionary, which is not very reputable source for sword-related information) supports the concept that the two are less than the same weapon (from my understanding most scholarly texts find the later appearance of the word "scimitar" in the 1500s a bastardization of shamshir, a product of trade and revised interest in the middle east). If the shamshir is now "more inclusive" then of course it "includes" the scimitar by its rightful name (note that the word scimitar does not seem to appear until 1548, yet the weapon appears much earlier - what would it have been called? Most scholars seem to think "shamshir"). I think that the "scimitar" related information should be merged into the shamshir article, leaving scimitar as a redirect page. However, I can certainly be wrong, and my interpretation and recollection of printed material can be wrong - but it certainly seems that much (if not all) of the academia associates these two words to mean the same weapon, most properly (and originally) termed a shamshir. --Xiliquiern 03:50, 23 October 2006 (UTC)