Oman, Morocco or Zanzibar?

tom hyle · 19th August 2011, 09:35 PM

Please do argue that it's more like a baselard, because I don't see how? Certainly it's a tempting comparison, with the (as I noted) basically European dagger blade these have, but
the soldered-on (rather than soldered then
assembled onto the substrate) metal that often nearly fully wraps these grips is not usual on
Swiss weapons AFAIK, whereas it is rather
common on jambiy and shabrias (a similar type of work is common on the central ferule of some koumiyas, but almost always with additional filigree or other applied decoration not common to my experience of the short swords in question). Furthermore, the overall shape of the grip is seen on jambiya per se (htypically the pommel is less broad), and also on other African swords and daggers (lately I've seen a couple where the tips of the upper guard/pommel were wrapped in spiralled wire on this forum; do you remember them? They had straight DE blades)
All things are possible, but these hilts do not resemble any other Mooroccan work I'm familiar with, while they do resemble Middle Eastern Arab work.
The photo is interesting. Thanks.

19th August 2011, 09:35 PM	#38
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	Please do argue that it's more like a baselard, because I don't see how? Certainly it's a tempting comparison, with the (as I noted) basically European dagger blade these have, but the soldered-on (rather than soldered then assembled onto the substrate) metal that often nearly fully wraps these grips is not usual on Swiss weapons AFAIK, whereas it is rather common on jambiy and shabrias (a similar type of work is common on the central ferule of some koumiyas, but almost always with additional filigree or other applied decoration not common to my experience of the short swords in question). Furthermore, the overall shape of the grip is seen on jambiya per se (htypically the pommel is less broad), and also on other African swords and daggers (lately I've seen a couple where the tips of the upper guard/pommel were wrapped in spiralled wire on this forum; do you remember them? They had straight DE blades) All things are possible, but these hilts do not resemble any other Mooroccan work I'm familiar with, while they do resemble Middle Eastern Arab work. The photo is interesting. Thanks.