The jambia is a curved dagger whose tradition in Yemen dates back more than 1,400 years. Even though it looks like mere a weapon of convenience, in Yemen it is much more than this: it symbolizes honor, fashion, tradition, power, and family inheritance.

The jambia  also symbolizes the character of the wearer and his pride in the heritage of Yemen. The jamibia defines  personality and others look at it to tell who you are. It is sort of like the suit you wear or the car you drive in the west.

Like all fashion statements, the monetary value of the jambia ranges widely. Some are cheap. They can be had in the suq for $10. Some are expensive: the most famous jambia in Yemen recently sold for one million dollars. It was bought and is now worn by Sheikh Naji bin Abdul Aziz al-Sha-if.

Why did this jambia fetch one million dollars? First of all, it belonged to the Imam, Ahmed Hamid al Din, who ruled Yemen from 1948 until he was deposed in 1962. It is therefore a piece of Yemen’s history. The second reason is that it has an extraordinarily beautiful and defined curve to the hilt which is made of precious rhinoceros horn. Third, the horn has acquired, over time, an unearthly glow, the result of ages and ages of wearers who polished it and cared for it. Actually, the hilt of a jambia, when it is made of rhino horn, is a living object. It keeps growing after its been shaped into the head of a jambia. The hilt actually grows and as it grows it acquires a rich almost translucent glow, as if light were emerging from within.

The expensive jambias in Yemen come with a pedigree, a list of the previous owners, and a certificate of authenticity.

The second highest price ever paid for a jambia was for the one that Sheikh Ahmed Hamid Al-Habari sold to Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hussein Al-Ahmar,  head of the Yemeni Parliament, for $600,000. He in turn passed it on as a gift to his son,  Sheikh Himyar Bin Abdullah Al-Ahmar, MP. Himyar claims that his jambia is the better one and that the reason it didn’t sell for a million dollars was because he is a better negotiator in the marketplace.

There are many kinds of jambias. The best coming from Saifani, followed by Assadi, Zalaf and Safi. The names of these jambias are taken from the names of the families who built them and who’ve passed the craft of jambia construction down through the generations.

A master craftsman in the jambia suq, Obad al-Ozeri,  acknowledges  that ever since the United Nations prohibited rhinoceros hunting, there have been no more jambias  made of rhino horn. This makes the trade of rhino horned jambias an especially lucrative trade since there are a limited number of them.

Jambias are now made of silver, wood, glass, marble, and the bones of fish and other non-endangered species.

Over the years, Yemeni craftsmen have proved creative in making the jambia by inlaying the head with patens of silver and gold. Some of these decorated jambias look like jewelry, sparkling and glowing at the wearer’s waist. Others look like deadly weapons, which they are. Every jambia varies slightly in color and shape. The Saifanis can be red, yellow, orange, or green. The Assadis are only black, while the Zalafis are have hilts that bulge and protrude like a stout waling stick.

Children in Yemen look forward to the day that they are old enough to wear a jambia. In the countryside, it is not uncommon to see little boys of three and four years of age running and playing, their jambias strapped firmly to their tummies.

Some fancy tales are connected to jambias. There is, for instance, the story of a jambia belonging to a man in the village of Zarajah in Dhamar. This jambia was said to be used for treating people bitten by snakes.According to Abdullah Al-Qiri of Khawlan, a snake bit him one day and his relatives rushed him to the owner of that jambia. The man put the hilt of the jambia on the wound where the snake had bitten him. The jambia absorbed the poison from the wound. The hilt of the jambia then turned black, a sign that it had  filled with poison.

Many people in the Governorate of Hajjah believe that some jambias magically make one's skin and face shine when they are worn.

Perhaps there are other stories still untold, or magic long forgotten hanging from the walls of antique shops in Sana'a and elsewhere around the country. Every old jambia has its own history, and in the janabi suq, new blades are being made every day whose legends have yet to unfold.