Alexandria arsenal sword prototype by Arms & Armor (WIP)

The proportions of these swords vary quite a bit. This prototype from Arms & Armor is based on the largest and lightest of these swords. This sword is identified in the 2003 Park Lane Arms Fair catalog as sword 12, the "Leeds Castle" sword. The blade on that sword is 96 cm and the weight is 3 lbs 8 oz.

I found the following excerpt from the article in the 2003 Park Lane Arms Faire catalogue to be of particular interest, as it described the probable reasons for the blade's design and the likely military uses for these swords:

"...the sections of the broader swords show that they could not have been intended for use against any kind of substantial armor. Although they have accute points, they are far too thin and flexible for thrusting with and would probably only bend and cause little damage if the wielder attempted to pierce even light armour (such as the padded European gambeson or its mamluk equivalent, the qarqal).

Therefore, these are essentially cutting swords; photographs do not really do justice to the sheer breadth of some of these blades which, combined with their greatly flattened sections were optimized for cleaving lightly armored opponents. We can assume that they were tapered to improve their agility and balance, for with much of their weight concentrated toward the broad upper half of the blade, they feel considerably more mobile in the hand than one would expect.

Put into use, this would enable the wielder to maintain a fairly precise control over his sword. These are still quite heavy weapons, though and ample weight remains at the "business end" of the blade to ensure that a lethal slicing cut could be delivered - the larger examples would have been especially deadly if wielded with two hands or from the back of a horse.

It is certain that these swords were designed specifically for use in the middle east, where heavy plate armor was not used because of the local climate. In common use in the area were the dir' - a mailshirt very similar to the mail hauberk of European soldiers - and the kazaghand, which was basically a sandwich of mail and padding covered with light cloth. This was actually quite a heavy garment to wear and its exact composition is unclear. It is likely that by the early fifteenth century its mail element had been discarded, thus reducing its protective qualities somewhat. Thus, it would appear that our swords would have been perfectly effective when used in their intended environment, especially when we consider that, apart from the elite mamluks and their knightly counterparts, most common soldiers wore little in the way of substantial armor.

It is certainly feasible that these weapons were occasionally used by the mamluks themselves against local adversaries such as Bedouin tribesmen who, shunning armour on account of their beliefs, would have been particularly vulnerable to weapons such as these."

As was  mentioned in the historical information and the sword stats above, the blade on this sword is 37.75 inches (96 cm) long. It is also the lightest known example of this type of sword. The resulting long thin blade has a fair amount of flex to it. If fact, if held horizontally, it will bow slightly under its own weight. This significant flexibility did not seem to cause significant problems during the test cutting, though it could be felt. Grabbing the tip, the blade flexes VERY easily.