Philip, I was remiss in not responding to your post #7 and thank you for mentioning the Furisiyya volume which I do have, and also for noting the work , "Al Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain" Met, Mus. of Art, 1997, which is now on my 'get' list too.
Well observed on the blades.....it would be good to compare the blades on the swords of Topkapi and the examples in Spain. Yucel notes that while it is certain these swords in Istanbul with distinguished provenance along with the rest have been remounted c. 1517 , many of the blades may be of the antiquity noted and to the attribution claimed.
Keeping to the key topic here, the form and likely development of the Hispano-Moresque sword forms with regard to the hilts, it seems it was questioned at some point (I believe Gonzalo) how the notion of possible European infuence was arrived at. Also, how early was the downward turned quillon present in the Iberian/ Al Andalusian swords?
In Dr, David Nicolle, "Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era 1050-1350" (1988, p.158) , it is noted;
"... a new type of sword and its associated tactics are believed to have been introduced to the Iberian Peninsula by Berber mercenaries and conquerors in the 11th and 12th centuries perhaps as a precursor to , or an early version of the JINETE light cavalry tactics clearly introduced from North Africa in the 13th-14th c.
Light cavalry combat a la' jinete was again associated with what west Europeans came to know as the Italian grip, and according to some scholars, with curved quillons".
in the article previously cited by Midelburgo, Dr. Nicolle again addresses the curved quillon conundrum in "Two Swords from the Foundation of Gibraltar" (Gladius XXII, 2002, pp 147-200);
Where two swords of 12th c. were found in a cave on Gibraltar in which one had somewhat downturned quillons, the other with straight.
While Yucel (2001, p.54) has asserted that virtually nothing is known about the form and nature of Umayyad and Abbasid hilts or the period from 8th c. to the Mamluk period. However it seems in various other works there have been presumptions that these hilts may have been guardless except for a kind of cuff extending over the blade forte.
Nicolle (2002, op. cit. #33) illustrates a hilt of this general form as Mamluk or Maghribi (North African broadly) 12th-14th c.
It would seem that both downturn quillons and straight existed contemporarily in Al Andalusian Spain in c. 12th century, and the 'cuffed' type hilt feature existed possibly from as early as Umayyad North Africa. Later the style probably influenced hilts in degree in the Maghrib and Mamluk spheres travelling into Al Andalusian Spain sometime after 12th c.
Perhaps the cuffed style incorporated downturned quillons and evolved into the elaborately decorated Nasrid (Boabdil/Jineta) style which were intended for prominant if not regal figures as reflective of stature.
I do not believe these elaborately decorated and structured hilts were prevalent overall in Spain, but were selectively unique and that most swords in use were of the more commonly seen quillon types which evolved into the crab claw types later.
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