The term scimitar refers to a sword with a curved blade from western Asia (Middle East).
While the name "scimitar" is quite prevalent when speaking of Arabian swords, in reality there is no such "historic sword" called a scimitar.
The word scimitar is a derivative from the Persian shamshir. This is indeed a deeply curved sword found in Middle Eastern history; however, "scimitar" has become a catch-all which often includes the Indian talwar and the archetypal Turkish kilij. Modern vendors sell scimitars which are in fact fantasy blades with no historical bearing. These often come from stylized artistic representation of Arab arms (paintings, and film); similarly the romanticized notion that these curved swords were used to combat the crusaders in the 11th to 13th centuries is inaccurate (swords of the time were mostly straight with a slightly curved tip).Scimitars can be found in one or two handed variants, with blades typically ranging in length from 30 to 36 inches (76 to 92 centimetres), and the blades, while commonly depicted as being very wide (from cutting edge to the rear of the blade), seem most often to have been very thin.
A scimitar with a thin blade (shamshir)
It seems likely that scimitar-type weapons were developed from examples of swords brought by the conquering Macedonians under Alexander the Great, such as the kopis sword, itself derived from the ancient Egyptian khopesh sword. Further, it is possible that the falchion swords employed in the Middle Ages by Europeans were inspired by the scimitars of the Turks. Modern examples of similar blades are cavalry sabres and cutlasses of pirate fame.
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