Ibrahiim, your summation of the complexity of the connections between the trade between these cultural spheres and development and cross influences of these weapons is brilliant! I agree, the discussion on development and history of the so called nim'cha's seems to almost have been avoided through many years. The presently running thread (Oman, Morocco or Zanzibar)on these fascinating swords also is focused on these and I think we are actually making some headway.
Actually the influence of these Arab swords, via North Africa and the Maghreb in particular, have indeed been carried into Spain as well as its colonies including New Spain, Cuba and South America, with its outer points in the Philippines. There is evidence of these influences in characteristics in Spanish colonial hangers (espada anchas) and various swords and edged weapons. Examples of South American espada have the distinct nock in the top of the grip seen on the 'nim'cha' , and there are types of swords now attributed to Cuba which have been also associated with Algeria. There are numerous other influences of Moorish Spain and its culture evident throughout Spains colonies.
All of these were easily carried into the Philippines, and conversely, even Chinese influences returned to New Spain (Mexico) from trade interaction there. The diffusion of these weapons in the confluence of trade in these archipelagos between the Philippines, Indonesia, China, Malaysia, India are well established. Naturally various hybrids and anomalies are to be expected in these trade networks, but are of course hard to track with certainty in most cases. Typically such things are accomplished only with a propensity of examples of like form occurring in a region and accompanied with reasonable provenance.
As noted on the other thread, most of the weapons I have encountered claimed to be from Zanzibar are only tenuously connected, with no sound evidence to support such attribution that I have been aware of. There are a good number of these sa'if (nimcha) with ring loops on crossguard claimed to be Zanzibar produced (Tirri, 2003) but all other references I have seen list them as 'Arab' (Buttin, 1933,1939) .
These style hilts with the highly stylized form with zoomorphic profile seem to have appeared in North Africa, Arabia, India and as noted Indonesia and the Philippines. As with the flyssa and karabela, we can only speculate what animal or creature these represent.
All best regards,
Jim
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