Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Identifying this sword ? (please take a look)

Philip · 29th October 2006, 07:09 AM

Gentlemen
Great pictures of various specimens of Zanzibar sabers!

Some years ago, the noted London antiquarian Robert Hales collected these and we had a talk about them when I was in his shop one day. He believed that the lateral rings that form part of the guard (which differentiate this form of "sayf" from the more familiar Moroccan nimcha") are a common feature on many European sword hilts of the 15th cent., and were a design element probably picked up as a result of the incursions of the Portuguese in the region at end of the 1400s, and into the next century.

29th October 2006, 07:09 AM	#9
Philip Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: California Posts: 1,036	Portuguese influence Gentlemen Great pictures of various specimens of Zanzibar sabers! Some years ago, the noted London antiquarian Robert Hales collected these and we had a talk about them when I was in his shop one day. He believed that the lateral rings that form part of the guard (which differentiate this form of "sayf" from the more familiar Moroccan nimcha") are a common feature on many European sword hilts of the 15th cent., and were a design element probably picked up as a result of the incursions of the Portuguese in the region at end of the 1400s, and into the next century.