Indian Guild Infantry

[soup_alex]

Damascus is derived from an arabic word for "watery" (damas), referring to the wierd watery patterns on their high quality steel.

The Moar You Know!

Seriously, that's awesome.

[Ibrahim]

The Moar You Know!

Seriously, that's awesome.

not really-Its what you get for wasting 2 months of your life researching the lakhmid army

also, the damascus for the steel is not derived for the damascus the city(as in the steel did not give its name to said city), whish is damashq or dimashq in arabic, supposedly from "dammashqa" meaning: to "make haste" (again, supposedly. take the Arab etymologists with a grain of salt.). the two were different words in arabic, that ended up the same in english (lord knows why). now there is a school of thought that says that the steel is indeed named for damascus, and either one can be correct. i meant to give an alternate interpretation, as honestly, you will see both online..

they have the info on wikipedia, as well as the contemporary accounts, if you want to get it the easy way (I got the hard way). the ones that come to mind mentioning "Indian whites" are 3antarah, the roomiyyat of abu firas, and other poems that I forgot and don't really care for.

Surprising how much you can learn from Arab poetry-and they say we are poorly documented (let me warn you though, you have to take them with a grain of salt)

and I read from the blue green book, furthur helping. *curse that it is now lost*

EDIT: here is an extreme case of the damas described:



EDIT: it was also produced in damascus as well, where its production did indeed become famous.

[Ibrahim]

also, I forgot: the link up there (the none wikipedia one), provided by AFRICANVS, mentions it (the steel) as well.