The sword known as Tizona, today, was demonstrated to have been cast in Cordoba, and had steel produced in Damascus in it.
We have the swords today, but, nobody can document exactly whose swords they were.
Best,
Ted
It’s a quite story and I suspect it goes back to the trans-Arabian sea trade done before the present era.
Way back when I was in collage (in the last millennia) I had a minor in which we studied the origin and movement of “Damascus steel”.
The origin of the process that produces what we now call Damascus or Toledo steel can be traced back to what we now call India, from which steel made by that process was exported in the form of sword blades to what we now call the Middle East. Damascus was the largest break-of-bulk transshipment point through which the sword blades were marketed. Hence the steel becoming known as Damascus steel. No one knows just when the first shipment of steel was made, but I have heard some wild arguments on the subject.
From Damascus the sword blades (and finished swords using the sword blades) were traded along the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, eventually finding their way to Spain. Toledo, Spain became the European break-of-bulk point for these swords and blades and the swords/blades became known as “Toledo steel.”
At some point in time knowledge of the process used to produce Damascus/Toledo steel was exported from India to Damascus and the production of true Damascus steel was begun in Damascus. That knowledge was eventually traded into Spain, and the production of true Toledo steel began.
Given the similarities between the processes by which Japanese sword steel and Damascus steel are made there is a (sometimes bitter) controversy regarding whether the two steels are independent invention or one maker learned the process from the other.
It’s a twisty tale 😊
