Arab Cutlasses of the Pirate Coast

[Peter Hudson]

Originally Posted by Ian

Peter,

You have laid out a lengthy argument for your case that the palash influenced nimcha styles. I think this deserves a more scholarly setting than our humble forum. Have you considered writing this for a journal? I'm not sure of the appropriate place for such an article, but perhaps our forumites might suggest one for you.

Regards,

Ian

Dear Ian, For the time being I am pleased to leave this work in the realms of Forum for discussion but welcome your remarks . In my 40 yers in Oman I was intrigued by this sword form as well as the Omani Sayf , and Kittarah etc and the general situation in Zanzibar. I am convinced that The Indian Ocean is key historically to much of the conundrum but especially that surrounding the Nimcha style. Previously no one considered the common language of spoken arabic (The Cultural Effect) as central to the solution on design copying on weapons, however, almost everything was copied and subject to this phenomena...Thank you for your support.
Peter Hudson.

[Peter Hudson]

Saaid The Great ruled Oman and Zanzibar during the early to mid 19thC from about 1804 to 1856. Several well known design features entered the history books either invented by him or inspired through one of his wives...including The Royal Turbanand Royal Cammerbund, The Royal Hilt on his adopted 7 ringer Khanjarand given his name, and the same style of hilt given to the Royal form of the old Omani Battle Sword called Sayf Yemani. In addition a sword with sharpened on both edges and carrying a long almost tubular hilt was placed by him as an item for dancing showing off its flexibility and being included in the famous national treasureThe Funun This dancer also became a heraldic and military presentation appearing on march past gatherings and at weddings and adorned with the shield...The Omani Terrs ...It was given the honour of being present at important meetings and at bothe Eids and as well as occasionally being highly decorated in silver adornments it could also meet the demands of the mass market in a much less expensive form and was still loved by the people. Saaiid moved the Omani Capital city to Zanzibar in about 1830 and transformed the Islands into a collosal herb growing region...and removed with others the Portuguese invaders chasing them south to Mozambique etc. Zanzibar became a massive trading and slave Hub and in about 1840 another sword appeared which was a single crved blade which Saaiid The Great gave the same Omani Long Hilt and as a shield the same Omani Terrs. The sword had a multi role purpose not only as a formidable weapon but as a badge of office seen on the waists of Omani slave traders passing through the Omani friendly Bunyoro Kittarah which incidentally was where the blade had been noticed on swords probably of German origin ... Cavalry swords... It marked the Omani hunters and Traders from a great distance as having permission ...right of passage and safety from attack was thus assured. Pictures of Omani individuals are sketched in the Zanzibar slave markets equiped with these weapons often with the Terrs slung over their backs and armed with Omani Kittarah as they became known.

Meanwhile the Navy needing a cutlass weapon and having seen the Nimcha styles we know existed through illustration ; the hilts... stiched in with silver thread or hammered in on a hot anvil...Some delicacy is required as the minute floral decorations on the actual Tughra are repeated on the copied stylistic quillons on the anvil..These were dynastic swords and this is what he must have ordered... He wanted his name on them... In fact his Tughra .
And although not on all weapons there are certainly a great number that carry this insinignia. See below.

I have described the Cultural process on this thread... through the use of one singular Lingua Franka (Spoken Arabic.)..common to most players.

[Peter Hudson]

For Clarity here again is the detail...showing the Omani Dancer/ The Omani Sayf with the Rulers Tughra.

[Peter Hudson]

Just adding a few words about the applied decoration and what I have identified as a sort of Royal Signature on Omani and Zanzibari weapons... and this work applied using quite rudimentary equipment either stitched onto leather or hammered onto steel hilts/quillons though not onto all the examples
which suggests to me that those VIP richly decorated swords may well have been presentation items and or high ranking business owners or Officers in the Omani Navy. Those swords of a lesser grade / munitions grade probably not so lavishly adorned nevertheless a degree of transfer identified in common design style. I tend to see some potential copying from the main style in Ottoman style plus style from other previous Omani types as well as unusual additions such as the Turtle motiff...and with a regional probably inexpensive blades ...and the black leather Scabbards complete with a sworl pattern. The apparent horses head hilt when finished in Ivory and gold imported from African trade operations into Zanzibars artesan workshops Joins the array of incredible designs and the broadened bottom third points at Malibari style seen on Moplah.

[fernando]

The "Pi", as it is read, is a Greek symbol attributed to Milanese workshops, although some authors suggest that it might be a Styrian mark, as often found in blades of the Zeughaus at Graz in Styria. Not impossible to be seen in a number of centers as a (spurious) mark to indicate supposed quality, like Toledo or Andrea Ferrrara.


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[fernando]

The sword shown in post #39 by Peter is superb. An interesting feature is that the blade is marked (SIC) "four times on both sides"; way too many for what we usually see out there. Also in the main description we can read that the inscription on the blade is a "Spanish inscription in characters similar to cipher", but in the additional information it reads "Klinge Inschrift (spanisch): reyna de las espadas" = Blade inscription (Spanish): reyna de las espadas (read Queen of swords). Therefore the cipher was already cracked by or for the Museum.
Back to the main description, the Museum appears to suggest a Jewish connection with this sword details based on numerous Spanish Jews having left Spain after the reconquest, moving to North Africa in the dominion of the Ottomans.
According to Enciclopedia Judaica, from the 165 000 Jews that abandoned Spain in 1492, only 32 000 are 'estimated' to have gone to the North African coast, 20 000 to Morocco and 10 000 to Algeria. It happens that Morocco, the larger slice, despite numerous attempts, was never under Ottoman domain. On the other hand and, in a strict'er (?) translation, the Museum decription says that, after the conquest of Granada, numerous Spanish Jews left the country and moved, some of them via North Africa, to the Ottoman territory.
To say that the Jewish community in Granada were intimate with the Muslims, which worsened their situation by the time of their expulsion. Some of them were even craftsmen selling their services to the occupiers, sword smiths included. Who doesn't know the famous Julian del Rey, the Jewish sword smith master allegedly converted and baptized by the Spanish Catholic Kings, who was said to have worked for Boabdil, the last Nasrid King of Granada
I suppose that their mode to decorate swords would be rather different than the mode favoured by the Ottomans.



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[Peter Hudson]

In none of the blades ...Butin shows almost 50 examples, the designs copied are not of blades but of Hilts... Especially in the case of big broad highly decorated European blades too heavy for the task as Cutlasses...Much lighter blades were provided to both styles in Arabian and North African forms.. Zanzibar had access to Hadramauti, other Yemeni and Indian blade making centres...Nimcha in the Meditterranean had access to European blades...Because there are no broad blades in any Nimcha types thus I dont think this was ever considered...

Going back many years the puzzle over Nimcha has baffled everyone...likely because of the blade situation when in fact that is outside of the problem... It was a hilt quillons and scabbard that were needed not blades. Zanzibari form went further with expensive Ivory and gold hilts and the same may be said on some North African examples. Thus it may be that we will never identify the original weapon since that is irrelevant. What we can see is how a hilt form fits the equation but to that has to be added the regional oddities (In the case of Zanzibari Nimchas ) of The Turtle, The Hilt decoration,The D Knuckle Guard , the peculiar quillons, the inscriptions on the equally peculiar quillon endings and the scabbards....

However the design differences are understandable since this is typical of the Omani Ruler who only a few years before had altered the entire hilt of The Sayf Yemaani...adding instead the hilt form which one of his wives had redesigned ...and which also was the new hilt form for a new format Royal Khanjar.....AND of course the invention of a totally new Dancing Sayf with the very flexible blade sharpened on both edges..and presented it with the Omani terrs shield..AND then not only resetting a German curved Cavalry blade discovered in the African Great Lakes with an Omani Sayf hilt striaght from the dancer hilt design.......he struck it with the name previously unheard of calling it after the country in the Great Lakes in which Omani traders were operating...Bunyoro-Kittarah....The Kingdom of The Sword....thus a totally new weapon arrived; The Omani Kittarah..... also awarding that with The Omani Terrs.

From my perspective trying to find the original sword from which the Nimcha originated is impossible...but likely contenders may well be identified for some aspects of design flow..Likely contenders are probably Ottoman Spanish or Italian forms perhaps seen aboard some of the vast numbers of foreign Traders from as early as the 15thC in the Indian Ocean.but several aspects have nothing whatsoever to do with other weapons and are down to regional quirks...outlined above.

Other swords that may have influenced these design aspects include possibly shapes such as is seen on Kastane and broader Foible widths from weapons off the Malibar Coast such as Moplah.

Peter Hudson.