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Originally Posted by Excalibur2025
I just wondered, what was each type of sword used for and who would have used it?
It seems like the shamshir was an effective sword for cavalry and also used as a badge of office for royals and senior military commanders. The kattara also seems to have had a ceremonial function, but was it also used for fighting? And I assume the nimcha was used used by rank and file foot soldiers?
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These are good questions. Swords in Oman and Zanzibar may have indeed been used to denote status and/or rank.
Stephane Pradines has suggested that the shamshirs in Oman and along Eastern Africa were reserved for persons of very high rank, such as sultans, emirs and viziers. There is a photo in Hales that shows a vizier from the Comoros with a shamshir. This may explain their relative rarity.
The cylindrical hilt saif is the sword most likely to have been the rank and file sword. It is the most common, including in museum collections. For more on that sword I recommend "Ancient Weapons of Oman" by Vincenzo Clarizia, Vol.1 where all the edged weapons are discussed.
Then we get to the "nimchas" and here things get a bit more obscure. In the aforementioned photo in Hales, the vizier's guards are holding nimchas. Here is a link to a thread I started for the purpose of studying these swords in more detail, which show additional photos of people with nimchas (and some other swords):
http://vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=28273
I wonder if the nimcha was in some manner the sword of guards or other officials. At this point, unfortunately I cannot make a conclusion in this regard with any degree of certainty.