Nimcha with markings

[ariel]

Just ended.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...ayphotohosting
No argument here: pretty .
The seller states that the blade is local.
-What do we know about blade manufacture in Maghreb?
-What is on the stamp? A date? I seem to see numerals but can't make sense out of them.
-The blade sports Indian Ricasso. Was it usual on Maghrebi blades? I have several, but don't recall seeing this feature.

One side of the blade is stamped Zaoue. I found one ( two, as a matter of fact) in the discussion here:
http://www.mlagb.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/Y...=1116966424/10
But both were from Marseille, France.
France, Morocco.... Ze plot sickens!

[kronckew]

the oval 'with arabic inscription' looks more like a stylized wolf stamp with a couple of decorative flanker symbols at the bottom, at the top 'Zivia' which can mean 'wolf' in hebrew.

[ariel]

Originally Posted by kronckew

the oval 'with arabic inscription' looks more like a stylized wolf stamp with a couple of decorative flanker symbols at the bottom, at the top 'Zivia' which can mean 'wolf' in hebrew.

Nope. Wolf in Hebrew is Ze'ev. And it ain't no Hebrew letters.

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by ariel

Nope. Wolf in Hebrew is Ze'ev. And it ain't no Hebrew letters.

i came across a site that translated 'zivia' as 'wolf' or more properly the female version ie. she-wolf, can't find it now, others translate it as 'gazelle or deer' of god (sivyah, tzivia,tzivia - variants). anyway was clutching at straws, lettering didn't look overly arabic to me & the central blob looked animalistic.

maybe the mfg/stamper was not hebrew but liked the name. maybe it was transliterated during the attempts at romanizing yiddish in the 16th/17th centuries.

ah, found one:
Meaning of name: zivia

another which says deer or wolf:Linky

interesting that zeva is geek for sword per that link....

looks like it could mean either or just about anything else too as it's a bit crudely stamped/cut. we need an arabic scholar's view at this.

[ward]

I have no idea what you all are talking about I see numbers = 181 (could be 1181= 18th century to lazy to do the math right now)and a few arabic characters A Haa and Raa. Worn caligraphy is hard to read but I do not see any hebrew or wolf head. Where do you see zivia? Arabic does not have a v symbol untill very recently

[ariel]

Fully agree.