Arab Cutlasses of the Pirate Coast

[Jim McDougall]

There were pirates in the Persian Gulf in ancient times, but the subject here is those who preyed from the Strait of Hormuz at Ras al Khaima along the coast, southward. These regions were known as the 'Pirate Coast', until 1820 when the British signed treaties with many of the sheikhs in coastal principalities with these regions termed 'The Trucial Coast'.

While the complexities of these ongoing circumstances in these areas, it is interesting to note this obscure area of 'piracy', which typically of course is centered mostly on the familiar pirates of the Caribbean.

In these areas of Arabia, the focus here is on the al Qawasim tribe (termed Joasmi by the British) many of whom formed the groups of pirates who raided and attacked along the coasts of Eastern Arabia, vessels of the East India Co., and even as far as the western (Malabar) coast of India.
It seems that these coastal regions in the Gulf were studded with islands, twisting creeks, treacherous sand banks and ideal for pirate activity.

The book, "The Pirate Coast" by Sir Charles Belgrave (1966) is a wonderful source detailing the history of piracy in these regions.

The top example strongly resembles the 17/18th c. example in "Arms & Armor of Arabia", Robert Elgood, 1994, 2.1,
note the mention of resemblance of blade widening resembling the 'Moplah' weapons of the Malabar coast of India, where it seems these pirate vessels had certain contact. Both of these swords have similar widening of distal third of blade. While the mountings of both of these seem of course far more recent, the blades seem much older.

Would appreciate thoughts, ideas, other examples. I am not specifying these are 'pirate' swords but that they might be of the forms used by either these tribes of Ras al Khalma or perhaps Muscat. It is known of course that there was notable Yemeni influence in Oman, and the lower example, has a hilt shape with the blockish shape seen in the Yemeni sa'if (often termed Zanzibari). in example posted with ring guard.


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[TVV]

Fascinating topic Jim. The swords you show, including the one in Elgood's book are all from Yemen. I have a similar one as well, but I am not sure we can link them to pirates from the opposite coast of the Southern Arabian Peninsula.

[A.alnakkas]

Historic photos shows Qawasim leaders mainly carrying standard Omani swords and other full sized Arab swords that are likely imported from Sharqiya and some examples could very well be imported from Iraq.

I have not found any evidence of those short Yemeni swords being used there while I consistently find them solely coming out of Yemen.

Jim, you'd love this actually, a Yemeni sent me photos of about 30 of them. Some have much larger blades. Will email those images to you as sometimes I have trouble uploading images to the forum.

[Jim McDougall]

Teo and Lofty thank you so much!!!
While my ideas were admittedly wild speculation as far as linking my examples to this rather esoteric sector of piracy (the raconteur in me could not resist).....it is wonderful to have definitive attribution to these.

Though the examples I have cannot be linked to these regions as I had hoped, I think the topic itself deserved further pursuit. As always in research, often one door closing simply means others to open.

It does seem Yemen carries the recognition as a primary source for the wider range of sword types in the collective of Arabian forms, with of course the Omani examples having their own distinction. The sa'if I pictured in the last photo is one of the types in the so called 'nimcha' genre, and with the ring guard typically has been classified as 'Zanzibar' type.

In Buttin (1933) these, along with the other similar types are collectively termed sa'if, without further specification. I have often wondered if these sword types have had colloquial terms used locally for them (beyond the 'collectors' terms widely used in references).

This example when I acquired it about 20 years ago was said to have been part of a number (about 40) swords found in an old arsenal in Yemen, and these examples (mostly with ring guards) were said to have come from Zanzibar (hence the term applied).

I think the thing with identifying swords in the context of piracy itself is pretty much futile in most cases,as naturally, these groups operated largely independently and would use whatever weapons available. With that being the case, of course any number of weapon forms might have been taken in their 'activities' thus there was likely quite a range of possibilities.

It seems likely that individual anomalies might have filtered in with those instances, but as you note Lofty, the forms through regular trade channels into the Qawasim sphere would seem be most familiarly present.

I look forward to those images!

Guys thank you again! I hope the topic itself can keep going here......my curiosity is totally piqued in looking further into the swords which indeed might have been used in these regions by pirates.
While the Qawasim leaders seem to have been established as wearing the standard Omani sa'if (commonly termed kattara in collectors parlance) with the open cylindrical type guard, the other forms noted would be interesting to see as well.

[TVV]

When it comes to pirates, the North African corsairs seem to be the only group that developed a distinct weapon - the nimchas from the 17th and 18th century, which Eric Claude classifies as Algerian. We have multiple examples in European museums with pirate provenance that all share a common type unique to the Barbary coast. This was possible because piracy was a state sponsored activity there and these pirates had all kinds of infrastructure ashore, including the necessary workshops (even if the blades were predominantly imports).

Other pirates who did not enjoy land based support on a similar scale did not really have the resources or ability to focus on developing their own edged weapons, but rather equipped themselves as best as they could, often from a multitude of sources. In the case of the Qasimi pirates, proximity to Oman means Omani weapons would have been the easiest to obtain. It is interesting that in the photographs the Qasimi leaders wear the long, conical hilt swords as these seem like the least suitable for boarding fights from the Omani panoply, with both the older, shorter swords and the Omani/Zanzibari nicmhas looking like much better options, but the photographic evidence is what it is and if they used other weapons in earlier times, we do not have any pictures.

Finally, when it comes to the nimcha like hilt, the Yemeni version seems like a cruder, simplified interpretation of the Oman/Zanzibar one, which leads me to think that it was copied from Oman and adopted in Yemen in the late 19th, early 20th century at the earliest.

[Jim McDougall]

Thanks very much Teo, so the Moroccan/Algerian sa'if which has long been established as the weapon of the Barbary corsairs is pretty much the single 'pirate' oriented sword of 'Arab' form. (illustration 1)

I see what you mean on the Yemeni/ Zanzibar (Oman) form sa'if (like #1 commonly termed nimcha), cruder and simpler. These hilts actually seem cast.

The conical Omani sa'ifs as noted (my example #3 is pretty rough) were it seems often highly embellished, silvered etc. as worn in a status oriented sense. In research a number of years ago, as per burton (1885) and Demmin (1877) these were entirely unlikely as combat weapons.

However the similar conical hilted examples with curved blades (usually German) were. These were the actual 'kitara' swords (illustr. #4).

I agree with your observations on these Omani forms being most likely in the Hormuz, Muscat areas, and if any of the Yemeni forms did find use there it was surely incidental. Thank you again, well explained insights!

[Peter Hudson]

Jim this is an excellent topic. The wide blade in the Moplah style is fascinating.

I think this is an important design transfer dating before the rule of Saaid The Great. I think that the hilts are also similar to the Nimchas from both Zanzibar and Morrocco. In my view I suspect that the Omani Navy used the Zanzibari Nimcha format for weapons probably Naval Officers dress Swords long before the appearance of Saaid the Great in about 1806....It may be remembered that he influenced weapon designs on Omani Khanjars of the Al Saaidi style and reformatted the hilts of Sayf Yemaani ....Other designs such as the Cummerbund and Turban are also down to him and of course the Omaani Sayf ...a straight bladed conical Hilt with very flexible blade and perhaps 30 years later the sister to it The Omani Kittara with the curved blade and identical Hilt from Bunyoro-Kittara in The Great Lakes ....In pointing to the Moplah style of blade you indicate a valuable and entirely plausible case for the Moplah to have influenced Nimcha blade design right through the region ... Thanks Jim ... Excellent indeed!...
Peter Hudson