Flyssas

[Emanuel]

Indeed Patrick, you put us to shame
I like the story a lot!! But be careful with it or it might end up in some serious publication. It's good to see such an interest in Berber culture though. How did you come to be so attracted to it?

The way I see it, the only way to support the claim that the flyssa developed as an indigenous weapon is to find cold hard archaeological evidence. Literary analysis of Ottoman records would be very helpful, but there would always be the nagging doubt, and text can be interpreted a myriad ways. At some point it'd be nice to have the mistery resolved, but I still like it the way it is now...it brings forth a lot of enjoyable stories and suppositions.

Best regards,
Emanuel

I think the piece you posted is a variant of the Maciejowski warbrand: http://www.swordsandcues.com/product...e_cat_544.html A sort of mediaeval chopper derived from pole-arms.
Check out some of the Indonesian and Filipino weapons, a few are remarkably similar to the flyssa.