[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Scabbard Furniture on The Zanzibari Nimcha.

Please view swords 1004 and 1007 on Butins chart XXX11. Below..

In what looks like an imported item the scabbard upper ring furniture is interesting and can be seen on many examples of the Zanzibari Nimcha style. Could this be an import from one of the sword making centres either in Yemen at Hadramaut or Hyderabad in India; famous for making mercenary swords?

It appears, in my view, to be a copy or direct import from the Ottoman Kilij stable. In the centre rectangle local work appears in the form of a golden square section which may be from local gold decorating workshops of the Golden Comb style...however, simple applied gold squares are an Omani jewellery technique seen below ...and I show an Omani workshop in Zanzibar where this could have easily been decorated and applied.

In conclusion this is the final technical piece regarding sword parts of the Zanzibari Nimcha and following the Omani artisan technique of sub contracting work out to local workshops much as they do today with Khanjars and swords and where several specialists can be reached and the work completed and put together as one piece. It would be not unusual for one craftsman to complete the leather scabbard whilst another did the silver adornment, another the leather decoration, another the hilt carving, and another the goldwork...final fixture and fitting etc. I suggest that this would all have been quite normal in Zanzibar in those days and that the name Zanzibari Nimcha or Saif is probably correct since in this way the entire weapon may have been made there. Several craftsmen perhaps from Oman, Zanzibar, Sri Lanka and else where may have been responsible for the final product..and numerous others; Ivory traders, merchants and dealers may have also been involved.