Flyssa !
To my eye the Flyssa looks like it has.. Yatagan ... influence.
Salaams all..From the Atkinson collection; Quote."The flyssa is the typical knife of the Kabyle people, a branch of the Berbers who reside in Algeria and Morocco. The name “Flyssa” is drawn from the “Iflissen Lebhar”, one of the major tribal confederations of the Kabyle. The eastern most group of the Kabyle is the At Zouaou who live in the Djurdua range of Little Atlas mountains in NE Algeria This tribe that has specialized as the armorers and creators of the flyssa. Among young men of the Kabyle, the acquisition of his sword (or dagger in later periods) was a sort of rite of passage. Elaborate symbolism decorates the flyssa, and these symbols (amuletic geometric figures) are a key to the folk religion in these regions".Unquote.
History
The Kabyle are Berbers located primarily in Morocco, Tunisia, western Libya, and the coastal mountain regions of northern Algeria. The Africans call this entire region of North Africa Maghrib. "Berber" comes from an Arabic name for the aboriginal people west and south of Egypt.
The Kabyle live in the rugged, well-watered al-Quabail Mountains. These inaccessible peaks (some as high as 7,000 feet) have long been a refuge for the Berbers, forming a base of resistance against the Romans, Vandals, Byzantine, and Arabs.
The Flyssa exists as a dagger and sword both. There is a child weilding a Flyssa sword at #41 third sword from the right... Also pictured are Yatagan.
Below some more including;
Long and short Flyssa versions.
A '"Khodmi bu Saadi" a sister knife to the Flyssa.. with the reddish scabbard.
Yatagan for comparison on the female model posing for the Orientalist artist.
"The Arms Merchant" by Rudolph Ernst completes my vignette showing the design link with Yatagan.
The short, curious, very curved other variant of Algerian Flyssa.
On a red carpet background two Flyssa.
That rounds off my Flyssa details..
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.
