Riffian Edged Weapons

Jim McDougall · 10th March 2006, 02:45 AM

These Berber sabres which have, as noted, a barbed protrusion at the top of the blade point, are an intriguing form which has apparantly eluded inclusion in most earlier catalogs of ethnographic weapons.
It seems that these are likely to be from Spanish Morocco (as noted, included in Mr. Tirri's fine book) and from examples I have handled most have the blades profiled to include this barb. I have always been curious about what purpose or meaning might be represented by this profiled barbed point.
Many of the examples are from cut down British M1796 light cavalry sabres, and the hatchet point ground away and profiled with the barb at the top of the point.
The highly stylized guardless hilt seems to reflect influence possibly from the well known flyssa, the long straight bladed, needle pointed sword of the Kabyles, another Berber tribal group to the east in Algeria. While these hilts appear zoomorphic, what creature is supposedly represented cannot be certain.

Another type of dagger carried in Morocco was one often with a very sharp point, straight and often with a H shaped (cf. baselard) hilt, and termed a s'boula. These are often attributed to Zanzibar (as shown in Burton, p.166) however in my opinion the eminent collector and writer on ethnographic weapons Charles Buttin (1933, Rumilly, France) correctly identifies these as Moroccan, and notes the Burton error (research from my paper on these swords from March,2003, "The Zanzibar Swords: Conflict or Diversity").

Above all we cannot forget the classic Moroccan 'nimcha' sabres, which certainly were used into regions being discussed ,as well as clearly along the Maghreb littoral.

Best regards,
Jim

10th March 2006, 02:45 AM	#8
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,459	These Berber sabres which have, as noted, a barbed protrusion at the top of the blade point, are an intriguing form which has apparantly eluded inclusion in most earlier catalogs of ethnographic weapons. It seems that these are likely to be from Spanish Morocco (as noted, included in Mr. Tirri's fine book) and from examples I have handled most have the blades profiled to include this barb. I have always been curious about what purpose or meaning might be represented by this profiled barbed point. Many of the examples are from cut down British M1796 light cavalry sabres, and the hatchet point ground away and profiled with the barb at the top of the point. The highly stylized guardless hilt seems to reflect influence possibly from the well known flyssa, the long straight bladed, needle pointed sword of the Kabyles, another Berber tribal group to the east in Algeria. While these hilts appear zoomorphic, what creature is supposedly represented cannot be certain. Another type of dagger carried in Morocco was one often with a very sharp point, straight and often with a H shaped (cf. baselard) hilt, and termed a s'boula. These are often attributed to Zanzibar (as shown in Burton, p.166) however in my opinion the eminent collector and writer on ethnographic weapons Charles Buttin (1933, Rumilly, France) correctly identifies these as Moroccan, and notes the Burton error (research from my paper on these swords from March,2003, "The Zanzibar Swords: Conflict or Diversity"). Above all we cannot forget the classic Moroccan 'nimcha' sabres, which certainly were used into regions being discussed ,as well as clearly along the Maghreb littoral. Best regards, Jim