Pesh-kabz

The pesh-kabz or peshkabz is a type of Perso-Afghan knife designed to penetrate mail armour and other types of armor. The word is also spelled pesh-quabz or pish-ghabz and means "fore-grip" in the Persian language. Originally from Iran, it is now widespread in Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India.

All pesh-kabz use a hollow-ground, tempered steel single-edged full-tang blade with a thick spine bearing a "T" cross-section for strength and rigidity. In most examples, a pair of handle scales are fixed to the full-tang grip, which features a hooked butt. The earliest forms of this knife featured a recurved blade, suggestive of its Persian origins, but later examples may be found with both recurved or straight blades. The straight blade is the more common form in South Asia. In all variants the blade is invariably broad at the hilt, but tapers progressively and radically to a needle-like, triangular tip. Upon striking a coat of mail, this reinforced tip spreads the chain link apart, enabling the rest of the blade to penetrate the armor. One knife authority concluded that the pesh-kabz "as a piece of engineering design could hardly be improved upon for the purpose".

The knife is typically used as a thrusting weapon. However, the wide hollow-ground blade also possesses considerable slicing performance, and as such may also be used effectively with slashing or cutting strokes. Its ability to be used as either a cutting or thrusting weapon has caused more than one authority to erroneously classify the pesh-kabz as a fighting dagger.

Pesh-kabz are typically around 40–46 cm (16-18 inches) in overall length, with blades of approximately 28–33 cm (11-13 inches). When compared to other similar knives with T-section blades and reinforced tips, the pesh-kabz virtually indistinguishable, save for its length of blade. The otherwise identical kard or bahbudi (antiq.) has a longer blade (though still shorter than an Afghan sword such as the salwar yatagan) and is considered a separate design, while the chura, used by the Mahsud clan of the Pashtun Khyber tribe, is a slightly shorter version of the pesh-kabz.

The pesh-kabz has a full tang and is traditionally fitted with walrus (دندان ماهی dandān māhi) ivory scales or handles), but other examples have been found using ivory from the tusks of the rhinoceros, or elephant. Still other knives may be found with scales of wood, agate, jasper, rock crystal,horn, serpentine (false jade), or metal. The sheaths are typically constructed of metal or leather over wood, and may be inset with silver or precious stones.

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