Zanzibar dagger?

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Emanuel,
I'll have to look further in notes to check on the terminology, but it seems that often transliteration and local semantics result in degrees of variation describing edged weapons. It must be remembered that 'Berber' is an extremely wide attribution, and various tribes are throughout the Maghreb.
I think it is interesting that these often carry the needle point that is so distinctive on the Algerian flyssa, which belongs of course to the Kabyles group, who are Berber. This seems a characteristic that may also support the Moroccan/ Maghreb attribution of these interesting short swords.

Also important is the fact that Jewish artisans who had emigrated from various regions in Spain to Morocco were very active in weapons production in certain degree, apparantly primarily daggers. They are known to have travelled with caravans and it seems likely they might have made contact with Falashas in Ethiopia, who made weapons for the royal figures there. I think this might explain one of these appearing among Ethiopian weapons in a monograph on them from I think about 30 years ago.


It does seem very interesting that variation of the baselard form of hilt with basic I or H shape is essentially the shape of the Abyssinian shotel hilt, as well as varied edged weapons of the Congo. Diffusion of weapons along vast networks of trade account for influences that appear in varying degree in weapons that are produced locally in regions on or near these routes.

Most of the excitement in the study of ethnographic weapons is found in researching such diffusion and variation, and becomes a bit of an obsession !!! I remain a confirmed addict .

All the best,
Jim