guardless nimcha

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams All ...To visualize how far the Nimcha spreads ...The Type Zanzibari (I suggest) here is something of a brain teaser... For this I illustrate the Comores situation... an island grouping not dissimilar to Zanzibar ...another slavery and spice islands grouping closer to Madagascar and seized by the French in the late 18oos...on research you will discover the Algerian connection in the Indian Ocean which will give you hours of fascinating study.

Not least among the conundrum encountered will be ..Was the Nimcha the result of Spanish, Portuguese, English, French sea going trade/war and did it enter the Indian Ocean around the Cape of Good Hope or via the Spanish via Accupulco and the Philipines or was this via an overland route ...Spanish Sahara perhaps or by ship down the Red Sea?...For certain it didn't just happen in Zanzibar...Someone brought the concept although it may have Morphed..What then was the influence of the Baluch mercenaries employed by Said the Great in Zanzibar and on the Zanj? To add a little spice to the problem we are dealing with two things...The actual weapon and the peculiar name... and how did it backwash to mean swords from here and from the North African coast?

Please also observe the formal almost exact engineering of a sword with quite marked disciplined design which to my eye is almost military in style and appears similar to Afghan blades. Hyderabad and Hadramaut seem invisibly linked with Yemeni(from Hadramaut ) mercenaries in Hyderabad dominant...and with the group name Jawsh ...Jeysh (ar. army)

~and I have to add research indicates blades entering the Indian Ocean from The West Indian region ..Bombay.

Your comments appreciated please.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[blue lander]

Here's my only Nimcha. One of the quillons is missing. The blade's very thin - you can see where they had to put a shunt in the hilt to make it fit. I assume the blade's european?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams All...As part of a multi layered puzzle with this weapon viz;

On the Zanzibari sword hilt there are three dots often with their gold decoration removed. Does this signify something Talismanic?

The entire hilt takes on an animal outlook... Is it a Lion or Horse designed geometrically?

On top of the pommel are two projections possibly ears?

Over the top of the pommel is what I have previously suggested is a Turtle?

Incorporated with the three dots is an INVERTED V . Is this meant to signify a mouth?

What are the R figures on all the quillons and on the upper hand Guard.?

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Jim McDougall]

These are all excellent and compelling questions Ibrahiim! I am hoping some out there with experience with weapons of these regions might have ideas concerning these features from examples they own or have owned, or perhaps material culture items with clues.

Such as the great entry some time ago you posted an example of an ivory embellished comb with similar features seen on the Zanzibari sabre posted here.

With the presumed zoomorphic character of the profiles of these hilts, it seems this dilemma prevails with quite a few ethnographic hilts, including the flyssa, karabela, the so called Berber sabres etc. There seems a strong possibility these are stylizations which have devolved into simply aesthetic forms with connections to any prototype long lost, whether on actual examples or from iconographic sources.

I would surely like to know others thoughts on this, as there must be other views.

[estcrh]

From George Stone.

[Jim McDougall]

Excellent entry Estcrh!! Thank you.
I would like to add some notes which might be pertinent, especially as Stone has made reference to Egerton (1880) where he describes ' as Mahratta sabres (534,535).

Actually in Egerton the first reference #534 describes an iron hilt sabre , 'nimcha or tegha' date 1780, used by men of high rank.
#535 describes a nimcha of 2ft 8" from Vizianagram.

Neither is illustrated.

Curiously, Pant ("Indian Arms and Armour", Lahore, 1980, p.59) notes Stone and his description of the Moroccan nimcha correctly, however he claims that Egerton has referred to these as Mahratta sabres, which I cannot find evidence of.
Pant does claim that Egerton has wrongly equated nimcha with his own descriptions of tegha and goliah.

Clearly the term nimcha was in use in India, and as early as the years as Egerton did his research pre 1880. As Pant has noted, the term was used for 'small' in varied context, however it does not seem clearly applied as to a certain sword type.

Pant, on p.77 notes a nimcha shamshir (he often coupled terms) to refer to a 'miniature shamshir' intended for young princes, and describes it as a small sword slightly curved. He adds that one of these was used by Ibrahim Quli Khan in 1725 in an attack at Gujerat, noting reference to it from an 1889 record (A copy of the Akbar Nama).
It is unclear whether the narrative of the 1725 event uses the term nimcha or whether this was appended by Pant.

On p,169, Pant also notes that smaller jamadhars (katars) with blades 3-6" are referred to as 'nimcha' (=small).

These notes may add more benchmark data to seek more on the nimcha term.

We know that the Buttin reference (1933) #1009 to one of the Hadhramati style nimchas is simply referred to as Arab sa'if.

In the 2002 update of Egerton's 1896 revision including Arab arms,
#194 is one of the 'peaked' hilt style swords seen in the Stone plate, which is noted as probably a presentation sword of the 18th c. The nimcha term is absent.
#196 is one of the 'Hadhramauti' (sharply canted hilts) listed as Arab and from Yemen, and 'bought at Cairo'. Cairo would seem to have been an outfitting center and this with likely European blade. Again, the nimcha term is absent.

So now we can look into other references beyond these more familiar ones.

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Excellent entry Estcrh!! Thank you.
I would like to add some notes which might be pertinent, especially as Stone has made reference to Egerton (1880) where he describes ' as Mahratta sabres (534,535).

Actually in Egerton the first reference #534 describes an iron hilt sabre , 'nimcha or tegha' date 1780, used by men of high rank.
#535 describes a nimcha of 2ft 8" from Vizianagram.

Neither is illustrated.

Curiously, Pant ("Indian Arms and Armour", Lahore, 1980, p.59) notes Stone and his description of the Moroccan nimcha correctly, however he claims that Egerton has referred to these as Mahratta sabres, which I cannot find evidence of.
Pant does claim that Egerton has wrongly equated nimcha with his own descriptions of tegha and goliah.

Clearly the term nimcha was in use in India, and as early as the years as Egerton did his research pre 1880. As Pant has noted, the term was used for 'small' in varied context, however it does not seem clearly applied as to a certain sword type.

Pant, on p.77 notes a nimcha shamshir (he often coupled terms) to refer to a 'miniature shamshir' intended for young princes, and describes it as a small sword slightly curved. He adds that one of these was used by Ibrahim Quli Khan in 1725 in an attack at Gujerat, noting reference to it from an 1889 record (A copy of the Akbar Nama).
It is unclear whether the narrative of the 1725 event uses the term nimcha or whether this was appended by Pant.

On p,169, Pant also notes that smaller jamadhars (katars) with blades 3-6" are referred to as 'nimcha' (=small).

These notes may add more benchmark data to seek more on the nimcha term.

We know that the Buttin reference (1933) #1009 to one of the Hadhramati style nimchas is simply referred to as Arab sa'if.

In the 2002 update of Egerton's 1896 revision including Arab arms,
#194 is one of the 'peaked' hilt style swords seen in the Stone plate, which is noted as probably a presentation sword of the 18th c. The nimcha term is absent.
#196 is one of the 'Hadhramauti' (sharply canted hilts) listed as Arab and from Yemen, and 'bought at Cairo'. Cairo would seem to have been an outfitting center and this with likely European blade. Again, the nimcha term is absent.

So now we can look into other references beyond these more familiar ones.

Buttin in his catalogue refers to all his “nimcha” swords as saifs. He considers the type as the quintessential Arab sabre, with relatively minor differences in Moroccan swords, and attributes the origin of its form to a Sinhalese prototype.
I found another reference to the Indian nimcha, in a report by the French consul to Calcutta, describing the international exhibition of 1883. He mentions several swords from the Deccan by name, including the “Nimcha, a short sword, carried by the lower classes”.