FRONTIERS AND CONNECTIONS: TRANS-IMPERIAL KNIFE-MAKING CRAFTSMANSHIP ALONG THE SILK ROADS AND BEYOND

Abstract

This article situates Uzbekistan’s knife-making—centered historically in Chust and Shahrixon (Shakhrikhan) in the Fergana Valley—within a broader, trans-imperial story of techniques, materials, and meanings that circulated along the Silk Roads. Knives (pichoq/pichak) condensed mobility: easier to carry than long swords, they traveled as trade goods, court gifts, and everyday tools. Drawing on arms-and-armor scholarship, archaeometallurgy, and contemporary cultural-heritage sources, I trace how (1) crucible and pattern-welded steels, (2) hilt and sheath vocabularies, and (3) workshop institutions moved across Persianate, Turkic, and South Asian polities before taking specific forms in Uzbek schools of making. A mixed-evidence approach uses inclusive statistics—ranges rather than single figures—grounded in published metallurgical analyses and heritage documentation. Today, Uzbek knife-making persists through family workshops, festival circuits (e.g., Kokand), and export-oriented artisan networks; makers innovate with lawful materials while retaining recognizable ergonomics and tamga (marks). The conclusion positions Uzbek pichoq as “portable heritage”: a living craft whose past and present remain mutually legible.