Arab Cutlasses of the Pirate Coast

TVV · 9th February 2024, 08:51 PM

Jim, the nimcha you have posted is the one from the collcetion of the Met in New York. It belongs to a type of which there are multiple examples, including one captured by the great Dutch admiral De Ruuyter in 1655, a couple in the Real Armeria reportedly from the battle of Oran in 1732, as well as other examples without provenance or dating in Malta, St. Petersburg and private collections.

Hopsonn's nimcha currently in the Maritime Museum in Greenwich is slightly different, as you can see on the attached photo of it, but generally from the same time period and just of a slightly different grip style. it is similar to another nimcha in the Rijksmuseum that belonged to Cornelis Tromp.

Personally, I do not quite see the connection to the moplah/adya katti. The Moplah cleavers have the cutting edge on the opposite side. On nimchas the blade seems much more likely to have derived from the Italian storta and the Ottoman and Mameluke blades (the yelman part).

9th February 2024, 08:51 PM	#10
TVV Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,600	Jim, the nimcha you have posted is the one from the collcetion of the Met in New York. It belongs to a type of which there are multiple examples, including one captured by the great Dutch admiral De Ruuyter in 1655, a couple in the Real Armeria reportedly from the battle of Oran in 1732, as well as other examples without provenance or dating in Malta, St. Petersburg and private collections. Hopsonn's nimcha currently in the Maritime Museum in Greenwich is slightly different, as you can see on the attached photo of it, but generally from the same time period and just of a slightly different grip style. it is similar to another nimcha in the Rijksmuseum that belonged to Cornelis Tromp. Personally, I do not quite see the connection to the moplah/adya katti. The Moplah cleavers have the cutting edge on the opposite side. On nimchas the blade seems much more likely to have derived from the Italian storta and the Ottoman and Mameluke blades (the yelman part). Attached Images