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Meteorites, or Celestial Stones: Damascus

The forging of swords from meteoric iron was, in the opinion of the Orientalist Hammer-Purgstall, the origin of the characteristic surface given to the famous Damascus blades. A most interesting modern example of a meteoric-iron weapon is a dagger made by Von Widmanstadt for Emperor Francis I of Austria, out of the famous Bohemian siderite long preserved in the Rathaus at Elbogen and known as the "Verwunschte Burggraf." On the surface of this blade, however, the lines were angular, while on the true Damascus blade the lines are wavy. An unsuccessful attempt to forge a sword from a piece of meteoric iron is reported by Avicenna in the case of a siderite that fell at Jurgan in 1009 A.D., from which swords that were ordered to be made by the Sultan of Khorassan could not be executed. n an Arabic work bearing the name of Avicenna and entitled "The Cure," the writer mentions a meteorite which fell in the Jordan, and of which Sultan Mohammed Ghazni wished to have a sword made for him, thus proving that the Sultan believed that meteorites possessed marvellous properties. A number of Greek and Roman coins bearing representations of these sacred meteorites have come down to us, and more than two hundred specimens may be seen in the section of meteorites in the Natural History Museum (Koniglich-kaiserliches naturhistoriches Hofmuseum) in Vienna. These coins are of great value in determining the history of those aerolites which were preserved in the temples of certain divinities.