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31st October 2008, 04:05 AM
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#1 | |
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Arms Historian
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 10,193
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Quote:
Hi Louis Pierre, The link works great, and again these are great examples, and if I may add some notes from my references that give I hope what are essentially correct observations. I know you have done a great deal of research on these, as on a number of these weapon forms, so I look forward to your comments as well. The top three as you note are Moroccan sa'ifs, and called collectively nimchas. As Elgood notes the nimcha term applies technically to short swords, so the maritime use example (#3) would actually be in accord with the term. The #4 example is of the form I believe regarded as a Zanzibari sa'if, and typically used in Yemen. These are distinguished by the ring on the counterguard, as identified by Charles Buttin (Rumilly, 1933). I recall a group of these acquired from a Yemeni armoury, about 30 or 40, and all were apparantly furbished in Zanzibar, and sent to Yemen. The shape of the hilt is similar to embossed silver examples identified as Hadhrami by Elgood ("Arms and Armour of Arabia,1994,p.13, 2.9). The #5 is distinctly maritime as noted, and if I recall correctly these with the widened blade at the tip, were discussed by Elgood (p.10, 2.1) noting the similarity of the heavy end blade to Moplah knives which of course neatly aligns with the constant trade in the Indian Ocean. As noted previously, it seems that the blades on these varied dramatically, and the nimcha term was likely collectively applied to all swords from the Maghreb that had this distinct hilt with its multiple quillon arrangement. Fantastic grouping! and definitely of the type associated widely with not only the Barbary Pirates, but those from regions in Muscat as well. All the best, Jim |
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31st October 2008, 07:43 AM
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#2 |
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Toulouse - FRANCE
Posts: 83
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Zanzibar....
Hi, Jim. Glad to see you on this thread.
Yes, i do agree with your position. As regards Zanzibar, on one hand, it was always the terminus of the vast commercial current created from the Arabic peninsula towards the African coast, Ceylon, Malaysia, Indonesia up to the South of Filipinos. The Arabic dhows took advantage of winds of the monsoon to reach Zanzibar and of their inversion to go back up towards the peninsula. On the other hand, the peninsula is very poor in iron ore, while Zanzibar stocked up without problem with Tanzania or Rwanda.... It became an important center of forge of the blades of saïfs which it supplied in the peninsula (Oman, Yemen). These blades are usually of good forge. This commercial current is more important than the around 30 years of dominion of Oman on Zanzibar. Yes, the generic word for all these weapons is Saïf, the specific to Morocco is Nimcha. As for the guard,you noticed the special guard which protects the hand against the knocks sliding on the flat of the blade. This defence which is very real on Tulwar and Pulwar is missing on Saïf / Nimcha. This circular guard replaces it. I suspect that it was able to exist on certain Nimcha. Spanish finalized another system called pitones to resolve this problem. See please http://blade.japet.com/NIMCHA/N-protection.htm end of my chat. Friendly. Louis-Pierre |
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