Nimcha Questions

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Rick,
Thats a very good thought Rick!! and well placed observation.
Best regards,
Jim


The Meditteranean was always a commercial superhighway, and one of the key regions of activity , of many, was of course the Moroccan littoral. It has been noted that since early 16th century there had been extensive commercial relations between Europe and Morocco. The famed pirate location of Sallee based persistant predatory operations that not only targeted the many commercial ships, but sent forth kidnapping raids to Spanish, French and even English coasts. While these constant activities were certainly an affront to these countries, as is often the case, commercial intercourse never ceased. The Spanish had coastal trade colonies in Morocco, and French colonial interest was established. England of course was established in the key location to the Meditteranean, namely 'Gibraltar'.

I think that this commercial activity in these regions certainly provided sources for these Moroccan swords to appear in England, however I think that 'popularity' as described would have been confined to prominant individuals displaying such 'exotica' as more of a fashion statement.
It is interesting that many of these distinctive swords may have been mounted with English blades, then returned to England in this manner, but many likely had other trade blades as well. I would doubt any sort of production of these type hilts would ever have occurred in England as these were simply a novelty favored for thier very foreign and adventuresome provenance.

The subject of the evolution of the familiar 'nimcha' hilt or more correctly, Moroccan saif, has been generally presumed to have derived from North Italian or Venetian swords of latter 15th century with developing guard systems. Much of this is discussed in Anthony North's "A Late 15th Century Italian Sword" (Connoisseur, Dec. 1975, pp.238-241) where he describes a sword which had been presumed Moroccan is actually, and quite clearly Italian of late 15th c. The relationship of the Ceylonese kastane to these European swords in similar development is also noted.
This discussion leads to wondering if possibly other similarly mounted European or Italian swords owned by prominant figures appearing in portraits may have led to the presumption these were 'Moroccan' in the same manner.

The idea that these Moroccan swords were 'popular' in England in this very early period is intriguing, and I think a good topic to pursue further to verify how accurate this presumption is and whether misidentified European swords may have come into play.

In looking at the illustrations of our subject sword, it seems the age and patination of the crossguard element and the blade seem quite close, suggesting they may be homogenous. The grip, and other elements of course seem more recent, and naturally refurbished as is quite expected with swords of such venerable age.