Algerian dagger?

[aspalathos]

Please I need some i fo about this dagger. Is this souvenir? How old can it be?

[Araña_del_Sol]

I cannot say whether or not your knife is a tourist/souvenir item but it does have similar motifs and stylistic elements as the flyssa of the Kabyle people in
Algeria. In a previous thread on this forum a similar knife was referred to as a "wedding nimcha" or "wedding flyssa" (second reference link below) which might suggest a ceremonial/status function for such knives.

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http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=22917&highlight=flyssa
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26391&highlight=flyssa

[Pertinax]

In the example of this dagger we see the process of transformation of fleece and nimchi.

Camille Lacoste wrote in her work «Sabres Kabyles»:
…The monopoly of the Iflisen no longer exists. But a new clientele has arrived: the "travelers" of yesteryear, today's tourists, who have shown great love for such an original weapon. To satisfy this new clientele, it was necessary to get closer to the tourist routes. The production methods have changed: from the artisanal plan, they have moved to the "manufacturing" stage, often even working "wholesale", on behalf of dealers from Algeria.
Finally, the weapon itself has adapted to its new use. The amateur is little concerned with the functional properties of the weapon. He likes above all the "local color", the "decorativeness".
For about a century, the art of flissa has been in decline:
— The shape has gradually changed; the blades have become shorter, curved in the opposite direction (through the acquisition of new techniques...

…These are all the small knives and daggers made since around 1850 by the Beni-Fraoucen, and especially the Beni-Yenni, or, it seems, in Bou-Saada today.
In a different social context, the flissa no longer serves its purpose. Its owners have changed, its functional characteristics have disappeared; only certain morphological and decorative similarities remain.
The art of flissa has lost all rigor. These new objects are no longer the preserve of specialized artisans…

[Ian]

Pertinax, you have written a bleak requiem for the flyssa form. It seems that few flyssa we see on the market and in auctions today are of the traditional style and manufacture. The "wedding nimcha"/curved flyssa knives seem very common, while the older forms are getting harder to find and more expensive than ever. Caveat emptor.

[Pertinax]

Pertinax, you have written a bleak requiem for the flyssa form. It seems that few flyssa we see on the market and in auctions today are of the traditional style and manufacture. The "wedding nimcha"/curved flyssa knives seem very common, while the older forms are getting harder to find and more expensive than ever. Caveat emptor.

This requiem was not written by me, but by Camille Lacoste.
My opinion is that only a small number of genuine Kabyle fleeces have reached us. Everything else was made "based on" after 1850 and it is very difficult to determine "who is who".

[fennec]

Hi mates, your algerian/french blacksmith here with you !

This is what I call a "curved flissa dagger", by opposition to the straight ones, that are mostly, in my thought, real weapons. Those ones used to be called "flissa de mariage" due to their use for ceremonies, actually also for some dignitaries, or religious/important people. lot of difference between them, even for some same age models, straight are the smaller copy of a flissa saber, no guard, a thick forged bolster, the classic brass covered wooden "zoomorphic" handle, etc... those are real knives. But even in curved ones, has some exception, that took that same style, no guard, big bolster, etc.. those are few, but I think that are also genuine weapons (also sometimes a good quality steel).
SO WHAT ABOUT THIS ONE ? Well, this is a bit more complex than Camille LACOSTE wrote in her book, for the simple reason that she was not algerian, and only refers to what french saw after colonisation, so after 1830. But lot of those curved models are from this era, or even before. If a lot of those ones are clearly made for tourism (late time of colonisation), they are obviously herited from another kind of daggers, probably more close to a khandjar, under ottoman era (lot of pictures, painting to proov that), that has already that "nimcha" handle shape, but on a smaller sword.
So what about the iflissen ? As mentionned by PERTINAX, those ARE NOT the only, and probably even not the ones who made the flissa (remember that even this name is given by french.. algerian only call that a saber). So if there is here obviously some KABYLE heritage in the craftmanship, this kind of dagger has actually not a lot of thing to deal with a flissa, and as mentionned, a lot of them where made in the south, in Bousaada, another big pole of algerian cutlery (cf khodmi bousaadi).

WELL, BUT THIS MODEL PARTICULARLY, is very, very rare... keep it safe !! You have here the typical "filigrane" work, that made famous the tribe of AITH YENI from kabylie . They where mentionned by LACOSTE as another source of flissa making, but those are actually great jewelers (introduced sylver in the south, and many skills, even to touaregs for centuries) and masters in metal work, so they obvioulsy became more productive for those prestigious models. They sometimes only made a mount for an already forged sword, to add more luxury to it.
Well, sorry if Im not very clear, but I hope I will be in my incoming book about algerian weapons (huh... 2 yrs and still struggling :D ), but just to say, that if a lot of collector place those models in "decorativ" place, nothing say that they wasn't used by their first owner as real defensive weapons... just remember than before 1830 (so before french, and actually maybe not before 1903, when "algeria was pacified"), NOTHING, was "only" decorativ.

Here is some pictures from mine, the daggers are mine, and will be well detailled in my book inshallah :D

The set that display that same kind of work is sold by an auction house Ive asked for permission for my book, so please people dont share.., and obvioulsy algerian (note those 3 straigh flissa daggers), is to show that this work, dont necessary mean a "decorative" weapon, but just, in this era of algeria, a prestigious one.

Best regards

[fennec]

just some more details..
In algerian cutlery, a different style, dont mean that the craftsman dont know the previous skill, or is going original. I mean, as for curves "flissa" daggers for exemple, the case of the decorations/inlays is interesting. You will NEVER, or very rarely, find the "classic decorativ scheme" of a flissa (succession of brass inlayed/carved triangles, with an upper and under brass inlayed line, with classic engravings on the brass, etc etc... ).
The decorative scheme, follow a kind of weapon, and this is something I've noticed in 90% of the flissas words ive studies. For exemple (have to make a post about that..) I classify flissa sabers in two parts. the long classic ones, and the "short" ones, I call "boarding flissa" (for many reasons, their possible use, area, period, shape, etc). I think some of you here see what I mean... So, for those ones, you can notice that the decorative scheme is actually always different, than the classic triangles... generally more floral shapes.

So, to come back to those curved flissa daggers, we have the same cases here. Thoses particular models, are the only ones from the algerian cutlery, that display that brass OVERLAY, or thin soldering, exactly in the ottoman form for the yatagans. This is clearly another skill AIT YENI took to jewelry, but this also give to those swords another kind of use/purpose, than the classics common ones. You can notice on this one I show you here, another typical skill from kabyle jewelry of AIT YENI, is the colored enamel, also unique in algeria (and probably africa).