hi, friends.
Thanks, David, for your answer.
Length of mine (see images 1 & 2) from guard to tip is 90cm.+/-, so it's longer, but a same blade's profile. I wonder about the black color of your hilt (seems painted...) What is it ? is that wood under this color?.
As for the marking, it seems to be as like a stamp of a craftman, not translatable and i agree with Dom.
I have the same problem with this sa¨f-nimcha made in Zanzibar for Peninsula (Oman). As you can see, it is a short & heavy blade done for maritime purpose.
It illustrates perfectly the term NIMCHA - short blade-.
I would say with prudence that usually a cavalry nimcha from Morocco has a pure long blade without any markings. i observed that difference is done by embellishments of the guard (koftghari) or of the ring on the base of the handle (silver) and of course of the material of the hilt itself (rhino horn, ...) and of the scabbard. Otherwise , they are very sober.
What is different is the use by the pirates ( bararesques ) of nimcha with foreign blades.
The pirates of the enclave of Salé (near Rabat) as well as those of Algiers, Tunis & tripoli had never have problem to obtain european blades from boats capture.
For instance, in 7 years (1609 to 1616), Algiers Regency captured 466 english ships not included the ships of others nationality.....
That explains mostly why there was not workshops in the Maghrib, but only reassembly and transformation activities. For instance, we discussed some time ago about one of my Nimcha with a shortend blade of baskethilt forged in Germany, ....
Now, i must say honestly that in Morocco (Tetouan, Fes, ....), existed workshops of forge of firearms' barrels and the same in Tunis (not in Algiers & Tripoli). So, we can guess that it would had been possible to forge blades!! Why not?. But this subject is for the moment not resolved for me.
I stop here for the moment.
See U.
Louis-Pierre
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