Amazing Charles! Once again the mysterious 'Zanzibar sword' arises. This has been the topic of not only previous threads, but debates and the equally mysterious paper, written by me
in 2003 and presented in a talk at the Baltimore dinner. Mark, please help me out here OK, I do not have access to my notes or transcript of the paper.
Anyway, this particular sword came up in a double header fray during the Baltimore event with Tony Tirri who insisted these came from Ethiopia (the other was the notorious BSY which he claimed was from North Africa, and we have remained at odds it seems, ever since).
These have come up many times over the years, and typically I recount my findings which basically note that these 'Zanzibar' swords were captioned as such when Sir Richard Burton used the illustration and description from the earlier work published by Auguste Demmin. I confirmed this by finding a copy of the 1877 book and viewing the entry which called it a Zanzibar sword. Charles Buttin noted the error in his notes which were published in the catalog of his collections in 1933 (posthumously by his son). In that publication he illustrates these and termed it a s'boula, which I discussed with Dominique Buttin several times over several years. Since Charles lived in Morocco for decades, he was well aware of the weaponry there.
These curious H or I shaped hilts seem to have evolved indirectly from the European side arm known as the baselard, though direct evolution or development cannot be effectively supported by examples as far as is known. It does seem plausible that this form of weapon accompanied the many others that entered the North African littoral through trade over many years.
The Ethiopian attribution does have some basis in that there have been from one to several known examples from there (one appeared in a grouping of weapons in a monograph on African weapons many years ago). I addressed this in the paper also by suggesting that these probably came to Ethiopia across trans Saharan trade routes, where they probably entered the armouries of the Amharic rulers. The weapons for these rulers were provided by the Falashas, Jewish tribe in Ethiopia who were also known as blacksmiths there. I believe that there was contact between Jewish artisans in Morocco, who also furbished daggers and weapons and the Falasha, though this idea would need more research to be supported.
From this point, trade likely carried some of these s'boula to the key trade center of Zanzibar, where it seems likely the attribution may have derived.
In reviewing some of the previous threads over the past several years via search, there have been some most interesting examples and discussion brought in.
I agree with Teodor on his observation on the Berber alphabet, and just wanted to add the history lesson to support what you said on Morocco!
All best regards,
Jim