Nimcha, literally
 

I was quite excited to acquire this sword, as it is very much like the one shown in "The Arms and Armour of Arabia" on p.10, fig. 2.1. It has the same blade profile, with a horn karabela hilt and a brass corssguard made of two separate pieces, riveted together at the ends of the quillons and to the hilt at the lower part of the guard, just as in the picture in Elgood's book. Not the same, of course, but extremely similar.

The whole sword is only 23 inches in length, and I am attaching a photo next to a Hadhrami saif for comparison. Elgood is not very specific on the Geographic area of these swords, other than "parts of the peninsula". The seller reportedly purchased it in 1997 in the Sana'a souk, and so Yemen is probably a good guess, especially considering the karabela hilt form.

The blade is unmarked, of triangular cross section prior to the yelman. The spine has fullers - would that suggest Indian production?

Where and when would you gentlemen place this sword?

Thank you,
Teodor

I think you are right, Yemen.
I know nothing about the origin of the blade.
What I know is this kind of short blade was used on board, on the boats / dhows. So probably from the Hadramawt or even Zanzibar...
This kind of blade was also used by Algerian pirates on the Mediterranean sea.
Kubur

Nice sword. I place it as 19th century European export blade in native guise.

I have a similar blade of form in size from an Ethiopian Shotel, similar fuller to the spine and it has an English look to my eye...if I come across it during the move in the coming weeks I'll put it up to compare...if you don't see it this side of Christmas, please remind me early next year.

Gavin

Hi Teodor,
Very nice piece. Thanks for sharing. I am totally green with envy. :cool: :cool:
Stu

Thank you for your responses. The blade is 7/8 of an inch thick at the base, and just less than an inch wide at that part, very much like a wedge in cross section. The way the fullers are executed is a little too rough for a European made blade, which is why I suspect a local or Indian copy.

This blade profile certainly was used in the Mediterranean as well, and there are multiple threads with examples from various European museums - the one in Malta seems to have a whole bunch of such blades in Maghrebi hilts. Elgood appears to suggest that the form existed in Arabia prior to the Ottoman conquest, but looking at the hilt and crossguard on mine the Ottoman influence is very obvious.

Regards,
Teodor