Stu, thank you for your comment. North African is an interesting possibility. I honestly could not find many examples of North African arms with circle decoration - the motives tend to be mostly zig-zag or triangular, which according to Spring has the symbolic purpose of warding off the evil eye. That being said, I did find a Tunisian sword with a circle and dot decoration on the hilt (not sure of the image source, I believe it was some auction), as well as one sboula from Wolfgang's site. it is also appearing on Tunisian khanjars, as shown by Kubur and one sold by Oriental Arms. The circle and circle and dot tend to be shared among a lot of regions and cultures, so it is hard to base origin just on that. I am not discounting a North African possibility, just need to collect more evidence.
Ariel has a point too: this could be a one off example made for who knows what purpose. It may well have been meant as a souvenir to be sold to tourists, which is usually the most likely explanation for unusual examples.
Teodor
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