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Dick Osseman | all galleries >> Istanbul >> Museums - Müzeler >> Istanbul - Military museum > Istanbul june 2008 2944.jpg
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20-JUN-2008

Istanbul june 2008 2944.jpg

This is a nasty piece of dagger. It's specialist name is Kama or Qama.

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Dick Osseman23-Feb-2009 23:14
I suddenly remembered where I picked up that use of "specialist", it's from Mastermind, the BBC-quiz thing where they ask "contestants" first a round of questions on their "specialist chosen subject", and then on general knowledge. Of course that is just a silly old game and the people participating couldn't stand in your shadow, still, it is BBC-English and has been so for the last umpty years.

Good luck with your English.
Dick Osseman23-Feb-2009 21:19
Hi, Deniz,

I think "special" would be making it worse. Apart from the obvious spelling error I wanted to indicate this is a name that a specialist (in weapons) would use. It can be argued I should have written "specialists' name". You might have gathered I'm not a native speaker but then again neither - is my strong impression - are you so be careful with your corrections (and try to finish the sentence in English when you are correcting English writing, without reverting to Turkish immediately). At the time I published the picture I could not find anything about the word on Internet, I now find in the Wikipedia: "The qama is a type of long and wide fighting knife, native to Georgia and neighboring regions. It resembles the Roman gladius in form." Oh, a gladius, now that rings a bell.

And if all your comments are corrections: please stop it. I've had plenty of pedants on my site. And just to indicate you are one of them: the Edirne gate entrance of Fatih that you commented upon at another picture is the caption by the museum itself, so please send your criticism to the curators. But beware, Strolling through Istanbul (Redhouse) has him enter through Edirne gate also, I checked 5 other books that all just mention he entered the city, not mentioning a gate. But now it's two against the single you. So name your source. Or remain forever silent, as the saying goes.

As for the historical mistakes that my site seems to be full of: most historians (many of them researchers, professors) that contacted me from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Rome and so on didn't complain, but you seem to be special. A bit obnoxious maybe?
Deniz 23-Feb-2009 07:14
"Its specialist name" denmez ingilizce. "Its special name" demek istedin sanirim. Zaten sadece (Its name is "Qama".) demen yeterliydi.
Ozur dilerim ama bu site hem Ingilizce hem de tarihsel yanlisliklarla dolu.