Ethiopian swords

[Jim McDougall]

Actually I appear to have made compound errors here, and somehow I misread the correct period for George V.....who reigned as noted 1910-1936.,,so thank you Dave F.


As Stu has noted, Wilkinson Sword Co. had supply contracts to furnish blades to Abyssinia into the 1930s.Some of these, as well as those from Solingen earlier, were indeed the dramatically parabolic 'sickles' which were termed shotel. Burton (1884, p.163) described these with considerable disdain , and notes the blade tapering to a point, which "...can hardly be used". The commonly held lore is of course that these sickles were so curved so that the warrior could reach around the shield and stab the opponent.


Getting to the 'name game', the dramatically curved shotel began to go out of favor with the advent of more conservatively curved sabre blades from England and Germany. While some still carried the shotel of the traditional dramatic curve, the shallow blade versions which were hilted with the same shaped rhino hilts became more of a 'shotel' variation. In this sense, many termed them shotel, while technically the proper term locally for sabre was 'gurade'. In the literature, I have seen both terms used, however, over the years the term gurade, in my experience was always limited to the typically stirrup hilted military style sabres.


While on this topic, one of my recurring quests in the study of swords has often been trying to find the origin of the terms used for certain sword forms.Obviously there is a great deal of contention and debate over these terms, and quite frankly, many terms have been used for many years without genuine foundation.

One example was the term 'kaskara', which I was surprised to discover not anyone in Sudan or Ethiopia had ever heard. Efforts to find a source were futile, and even the authorities in museums and authors of references had no idea where the word came from. As in Ethiopia, where these are termed sa'if.....so too was the case in Sudan. It was not until Iain found the origin in tribal language to the west, and probably brought to the west by Burton (1884).


I would ask here if anyone has ever found the basis for the term 'shotel'.
It seems to be another of these generic terms for any cutting item as illustrated in a reference by an 18th century traveler ("Protskys Travels in Ethiopia and other Countries" translated 1991 by Arrowsmith-Brown...which uses the term 'shotel' to refer to a carving knife,.


Perhaps somebody out there reading this might have some information or ideas toward this.


Thanks very much for the input,

[kahnjar1]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Actually I appear to have made compound errors here, and somehow I misread the correct period for George V.....who reigned as noted 1910-1936.,,so thank you Dave F.


As Stu has noted, Wilkinson Sword Co. had supply contracts to furnish blades to Abyssinia into the 1930s.Some of these, as well as those from Solingen earlier, were indeed the dramatically parabolic 'sickles' which were termed shotel. Burton (1884, p.163) described these with considerable disdain , and notes the blade tapering to a point, which "...can hardly be used". The commonly held lore is of course that these sickles were so curved so that the warrior could reach around the shield and stab the opponent.


Getting to the 'name game', the dramatically curved shotel began to go out of favor with the advent of more conservatively curved sabre blades from England and Germany. While some still carried the shotel of the traditional dramatic curve, the shallow blade versions which were hilted with the same shaped rhino hilts became more of a 'shotel' variation. In this sense, many termed them shotel, while technically the proper term locally for sabre was 'gurade'. In the literature, I have seen both terms used, however, over the years the term gurade, in my experience was always limited to the typically stirrup hilted military style sabres.


While on this topic, one of my recurring quests in the study of swords has often been trying to find the origin of the terms used for certain sword forms.Obviously there is a great deal of contention and debate over these terms, and quite frankly, many terms have been used for many years without genuine foundation.

One example was the term 'kaskara', which I was surprised to discover not anyone in Sudan or Ethiopia had ever heard. Efforts to find a source were futile, and even the authorities in museums and authors of references had no idea where the word came from. As in Ethiopia, where these are termed sa'if.....so too was the case in Sudan. It was not until Iain found the origin in tribal language to the west, and probably brought to the west by Burton (1884).


I would ask here if anyone has ever found the basis for the term 'shotel'.
It seems to be another of these generic terms for any cutting item as illustrated in a reference by an 18th century traveler ("Protskys Travels in Ethiopia and other Countries" translated 1991 by Arrowsmith-Brown...which uses the term 'shotel' to refer to a carving knife,.


Perhaps somebody out there reading this might have some information or ideas toward this.


Thanks very much for the input,

Hi Jim, The Shotel sword is mentioned in Wiki here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotel but does not give a concise origin of the word.
Perhaps if one had a very rough night and woke up in a strange bed it could be called a "Shhotel" if the brain was a bit foggy??
Stu

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Hi Jim, The Shotel sword is mentioned in Wiki here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotel but does not give a concise origin of the word.
Perhaps if one had a very rough night and woke up in a strange bed it could be called a "Shhotel" if the brain was a bit foggy??
Stu

I saw the Wiki entry also, actually got the note about the 18th c. reference using the term shotel for a carving knife. In this Wiki entry they state that the shotel dates back to these ancient groups in Ethiopia and that they had forces using these weapons and called the forces 'shotelai'. this begs the question were they called this because of the name of the weapon or was the weapon named for the force. That would mean there was a root word involved.


Whatever the case it seems that the term is used in a broader sense for sword/knife etc. much as the situation with many ethnographic edged weapons. We have seen this so many times in these discussions, and we could write a book on the countless misnomers, collectors terms, semantics and transliterations. I was once told by a reliable authority that in many of the Malaysian and Indonesian spheres weapons are called by different terms almost village to village. Perhaps exaggerated of course, but the point is well placed.

[roanoa]

It is good to see that interest in Ethiopian swords is still there.... and that good swords are still to be found. I cannot see the blade of the European hilted sword well enough to identify it. Where is the suggestion that it is Italian came from? The majority of these that I have seen mount German blades. A few British and very few French.

[roanoa]

As far as I know SHOTEL is not an Amharic word, rather it is from Tigrai and what is now Eritrea and it means BIG KNIFE. Amharic for sword is GORADE (actually spelled with the "O" and not the "U").

[roanoa]

Hi, Tokashikibob. Move them on?? Let me know.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by roanoa

As far as I know SHOTEL is not an Amharic word, rather it is from Tigrai and what is now Eritrea and it means BIG KNIFE. Amharic for sword is GORADE (actually spelled with the "O" and not the "U").

Thank you Ron! Not only good to see interest in the Ethiopian swords out there but to see you enter in. You were always my primary source for reliable data on Ethiopian weapons, and I still have the great paper you wrote on them years ago.

I think the idea that this European sword was Italian is that curious rise in the grip is an Italian characteristic in military swords on 19th c. (I think my source was 'Calemendrei' on Italian military swords not on hand at the moment).


The point I was making re: the use of shotel in classifying the European style bladed examples with the familiar hilt shape of rhino is due to the broader application typically occurring in collectors circles (the breeding ground for collectors terms) associating the hilt style.


While 'gurade' is of course proper for sword, it is transliteration and collectors use with these terms from different languages that contributes to the confusion. The use of 'big knife' and various applications for swords is a common occurence in a number of situations in many ethnic groups and cultures. For collectors, it is all the 'name game' in desperately trying to classify thier items......for students of arms, it is more cross referencing and broader descriptive explanation.

[kronckew]

If is recall correctly, the Ethiopean Imperial guard used a sword that looks much like a 1796LC or Blutcher with the Ethiopean Lion and amharic lettering etched, were generally carried in a fairly plain locally madeblack leather scabbard by the well dressed and properly western style dress-uniformed guardsman, who did NOT wear shoes. They ran, marched everywhere, at speed barefoot and I gather, quite good warriors. Just not enough of them. The OP's sword may have been captured from the Italians.

Here is the IMperial Guard Officers with more up-to-date British style swords. Our member Katana has/had one of the 1796 type...