It is hard to imagine exactly the dynamics of blade trade an diffusion in these regions with certainty, but there are certain factors to consider. This blade is very much like the 'shashka' type blades out of Solingen which were in some degree found in Arab blades.
These 'cosmological' markings are also typical of those found on various European blades in both talismamic themes as well as makers marks. Firms such as Schimmelbusch & Kirschbaum used these kinds of stars and comet and others used the crescent moon. These were often adopted and spuriously applied on trade blades in various entrepots receiving them.
There were also Russian blades, Caucasian blades which may have come from Armenian context into trade networks which ended up in the Red Sea. It is well known there were many Armenian merchants bringing in blades in Harar, in Abyssinia. While of course there were considerable numbers of British blades and Solingen blades imported into Abyssinia through more diplomatic channels, these 'extracirricular' products probably had considerable presence as well.
As well noted, many gurades went to Arabia, primarily San'aa and were relieved of their rhino hilts, the blades remounted or traded elsewhere.
It does not seem unusual that this type of trade blade, probably Solingen of 19th c., would end up in Abyssinian context.
Numbers of the 'nimcha' often termed 'Zanzibar' style, ended up in Yemen with blades carrying similar groupings of these spurious European type markings and date in latter 19th c.
All these factors add to the mystery and dynamics of these intriguing blades in whatever mounts they ended up in.
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