text: " The principal objects of attraction especially to foreigners are the arms to which Mr White accordingly confines his remarks: but the once famed Damascus sabres (called _Sham_ or Syrian) are now held as inferior to those of Khorassan and Persia (_Taban_ or polished ) unless anterior to the destruction of the old manufactory by Timour in 1400; and those of this ancient fabric are now of extreme rarity and value