Help pls. on 15th-17th C. cutlass & scimitar

[migueldiaz]

Hola Manuel Luis

Thanks, too, for the additional info. I appreciate it!

As an aside and about El Cid, finally I saw the movie (starring Charlton Heston & Sofia Loren) the other day. I like it a lot ... very inspiring.

Had 16th century "Philippines" (an anachronism I understand) only had its El Cid, then the Igorots, Tagalogs, Bisayans, Moros, and all other 'tribes' would had fought side by side against the Spaniards and other would-be colonizers

But divide-and-conquer works all the time, that's for sure Had ancient Filipinos played the role of colonizers in history, I'm sure they would have used the same strategy.

And I'm not trying to open a can of worms here!

Best wishes to all.

PS - From Wikipedia, on El Cid's swords:

A weapon traditionally identified as El Cid's sword, Tizona [pic attached], can still be seen in the Army Museum (Museo del Ejército) in Madrid. In 1999, a small sample of the blade underwent metallurgical analysis which confirmed that the blade was made in Moorish Córdoba in the eleventh century and contained amounts of Damascus steel [citation needed].

In 2007 the Autonomous Community of Castile and León bought the sword for 1.6 million Euros, and it is currently on display at the Museum of Burgos.

El Cid also had a sword called Colada.

Both swords have been misrepresented in popular culture. La Tizona was actually a one-handed sword, in the late roman style, whereas La Colada was a two-handed sword, greater in length.

Originally Posted by celtan

Hi Nando,

Nice to see you again on these "lares". : )
I agree with you on the nature of the falcon. The spanish didn't have a cutlass per se until the early 19th C., when the Brit M 1804-05 began being fabricated (briefly) at Toledo. The M1728 regulation sword, sometimes with a field cut-down blade, was regularly used by the Navy. Otherwise, used cutlasses were mostly of Dutch, German and British provenance.

The arabs imported many customs to Iberia, and in fact, most of the so-called moors were eventually Iberian christians who had converted to Islam for many practical motives which do not need be discussed here. Thus, scimitars were also used by the autoctonous european "muslims". OTOH, the arabs also began adopting the type of weapons regularly used in Iberia, of Roman-Germanic style, with long straight or tapered blades, as the famed Tizona (Coaled/Burnt) reflects.

BTW: I can't picture Don Roderic Diaz de Vivar parrying an alfanje with a main-gauche. Perhaps later in the 16th C as with Cervantes in Lepanto against the Turks..?

Take care

Fortuna, Vino y Mujeres!

Manolo