Boabdil swords and Jineta

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

That thread from 2008 was a remarkable exercise, and had a great deal of information about the Hispano-Moresque swords (Boabdil was only one user of them rather than a descriptive term).

It does not seem that the stylistic form regarded as 'jineta' (but also Nasrid) became known until 13th century during the 'Reconquista' ending the Muslim rule in Andalusia in 1491.....that was where Boabdil the Nasrid ruler was defeated.

Swords of the Nasrid/Hispano-Moresque styles are pretty rare, and I know only of examples in museums in Spain. They are best described in Calvert (1907), "Spanish Arms & Armour", although Nicolle's works have great coverage as noted in the discussions in the linked thread. Bibliographies there as well as even in the Osprey monographs are very thorough.

Thanks, Jim, for the much-needed clarification on terminology, especially to counter the common use of Boabdil as an identifier and general descriptor of the genre. But didn't the Nasrid Dynasty and its capital Granada fall to Ferd and Izzie in 1492? I seem to recall that it was the same year as the expulsion of the Jews and Columbus' first voyage.

Yes, the best surviving ones are in Spain, a complete one (down to the scabbard belt) in astoundingly good condition is in the Museo del Ejército de Madrid (you can see images in Ada Brunn Hoffmeyer's "From Medieval Sword to Renaissance Rapier" in Robt Held (ed) ART, ARMS, AND ARMOUR (1979), p 58. Years ago someone gave me a 35mm print image of a really nice one in the Musée de l'Armée in Paris. but I can't seem to locate it at the moment.