[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

That is a very good question.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not sure there were 'blade making' centers in Morocco.
However, I did find the reference in "Islamic Weapons: Maghreb to Mogul" by Anthony Tirri (2003), on p.25-26, where the author claims the primary manufacturing centers for swords were MEKNES, TETUAN and MARRAKESH

On page 19, the author notes that, "...while there was extensive use of IMPORTED WEAPON components, such as SWORD AND DAGGER BLADES, gun barrels or gunlocks, each region had particular style of overall weapon design, construction and decoration. Fez, Meknes, Marrakesh and Rabat had specific dagger designs and the regions of Tetuan, Taroudant, Ras el Oued and the Little Atlas mountain villages had identifiable gun styles".

The implication here is that while there were clearly local production centers for the making of the favored hilt, scabbard and for guns, the stocks....they clearly used imported working components and blades.

One unfortunate detraction in the Tirri reference, an otherwise beautifully produced book, is the lack of cited references which would have been most helpful in further checking into this topic .

Salaams Jim, Thanks for your helpful additions. If sword blades had been manufactured in Morocco Buttin would certainly have mentioned this since he lived there...but no mention was made..clearly on account of there being none produced possibly because so many European blades were on the market virtually flooded with European trade blades..Tirri was wrong footed on several counts not least the Central American, Cuban and Spanish colony blades he claimed were Moroccan when in fact they were absorbed into the Spanish colonies in the early 20thC during insurgencies..