Here is another Zanzibari saif, and while the discussion so far has focused on the hilts, the blades are also interesting. In this case the blade is single edged and almost straight, with 4 shallow fullers - three narrow ones by the back and another wider one just below them. The seller, who is a member of this forum and quite knowledgeable, thought it was perhaps Indian made in imitation of European blades. Looking at it, I am wondering if it could have been from the Caucasus, originally from a shashka? Elgood in his book on Arab arms mentions that following the Russian conquest of the Caucasus and during the Circassian diaspora a number of shashka blades ended up in Southern Arabia.
What is interesting about this hilt type is that it appears with all kinds of blades - some have broadsword blades, others have hanger type blades, this could be from a Shashka (or made in India), and so on - there does not seem to be a particular tendency when it comes to the blade. Meanwhile, the older boradswords, aka saif Yamani and the newer broadswords with conical hilts tend to have fairly similar blades in terms of overall shape. The kattaras with their curved blades are a little more varied, but then the Southern Yemeni swords with metal hilts, which were probably produced in Hyderabad tend to have almost the same blades. So why the huge variety for this particular hilt type?
|