Saif for comment

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Tatyana Dianova

I've got recently an Arabian Saif. Maybe somebody knows its more exact origin or age? Any comments are welcome!

Salaams Tatyana Dianova~ Great thread...I hope we can discover the stamp detail which "I think" could be the Omani emblem in miniature possibly used on Omani military swords in the period following Said Sultans rule or shortly after..in the second half of the 19th C.

The debate swings about owing to variations in perspective and provenance of some of the different Nimcha styles. The Kastane for example is shrouded in guesswork owing to some extent in the revision of historical facts down the course of history there... Ibn Battuta for example noted the Moors and there details in the 14th C. in Sri Lanka and although they are recorded as having some position there as early as the 1st century they are generally accredited with being there from the 8th.

Sri Lanka. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lankan_Moors
The Portuguese are said to have introduced the Kastane ...and blades later sold into the region by the British East Indies Co are said to be common on Kastane. All that may be true ... Or contain flakes of truth but I dont swallow it altogether not least because the Moors were there far earlier and because the Zoomorphic hilt is pure Sri Lankan and looks like it walked(or flew) straight out of an ancient temple there ! The other nagging factor is that the Moors of Sri Lanka were "THE TRADERS" of that country with sea trade routes to Oman, Hadramaut, Bagdad and African regions... For those reasons I believe this debate contains many stones as yet unturned..and a few that have been covered up!! Therefor there is mileage yet regarding Kastane.

Regarding Morocco, Algeria, Zanzibar, Oman, Yemen, Saudia all users of Nimcha yet interestingly none of those countries even have the word Nim in their language whereas Baluchistan does... and Farsi... where it means half..The muddle as I see it is deciding where it originates and where it has morphed...What is not chrystal clear to me is who invented the style ~ the Italians or the Spanish ? Is it from the Storta or the Jinetta?

It is not beyond belief that the sword you show is made in Hyderabad but rescabbarded in Oman or Zanzibar. The hilt is peculiar and looks oddly like rosewood? There are many similar weapons in Yemen but your type does seem absolute for Zanzibar. The other way could be for as an as yet unidentified artesan putting blades and hilts together in Zanzibar itself..Or some kind of link with Hadramaut also provisioning blades...to a Zanzibar workshop.

If there is anything in a name (Nim) the possibility of transit from Persia Afghanistan and India cannot be ruled out. The other way out of line possibility is that Sri Lankan swordmakers were involved in sending their wares into the Zanzibar market. Naturally the Portuguese could have transported the essential style from the Mediterranean or the whole lot could have gone overland via Timbuktu from Morocco or down through Mecca by camel train and sea routes. In which case shall we ever know?

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.