Zanzibari (?) Saif for Comment

[TVV]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

These were as often explained, worn by individuals of standing and influence in the Omani sphere, particularly merchants and slavers, who were not involved ... in any military or combative affairs. These were entirely civil or in effect court type swords despite fully serviceable blades, and very much status oriented, rather than combat ready .

I am not sure about the merchants, but the slavers seem to have been involved in quite a lot of "combative affairs". Obviously, the locals did not become slaves willingly, but on top of the resistance they offered, the Arabs in Central Africa were involved in some serious campaigns: Tippu Tip's son Sefu waged a war with Belgian colonial troops in Congo, and the British led a war in the area around lake Malawi against an Arab slaver called Mlozi. It would appears that swords were more than just part of the dress during those times.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by TVV

I am not sure about the merchants, but the slavers seem to have been involved in quite a lot of "combative affairs". Obviously, the locals did not become slaves willingly, but on top of the resistance they offered, the Arabs in Central Africa were involved in some serious campaigns: Tippu Tip's son Sefu waged a war with Belgian colonial troops in Congo, and the British led a war in the area around lake Malawi against an Arab slaver called Mlozi. It would appears that swords were more than just part of the dress during those times.

Very well noted, and you are right, the merchants would have been in quite non combative situations as they were situated in entrepots and metropolitan areas of commerce. These persons were interested in affluence and status, and wore these embellished conical hilt swords with swagger.

The slavers were indeed the more rugged individuals in expeditions far into the interior through highly contested colonial territories and engaged in an even more contested commerce, slavery. I don't think that the weapons used in these circumstances were any more regulated or patterned in any way, however I would expect that they were chosen for serviceability as well as durability. For example it would seem that machete like blades would fare better in jungle areas than awkward broadsword blades.
In the rugged areas of colonial new Spain, the simple heavy bladed sword called the espada ancha served more as a utility arm used much like a machete, but certainly doubled as a weapon as required.

The Omani swords bladed for dance pageantry of course would never have been taken into the interior, and we cannot be certain that the status laden examples worn by merchants and elite never appeared there. However, such swords would seem a bit out of place in these conditions and with such threats.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Searching my photo base I found a close lookalike to the project sword as below. This one came from Muscat Souk with a fairly accurate trace to the souk in Sanaa before it became embroiled in a war. The blade looks European with the added clue of hogs back, eyelash or bitemarks ...

[TVV]

Thank you Ibrahim, the sword you posted is indeed similar in the use of brass as material for the guard and the band below the guard. However, the guard is more complex than the one on my sword, and with the three prongs looks Maghrebi, does not it? I understand that as far back as you can trace this sword it has been in South Arabia, and not in North Africa.

Regards,
Teodor

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by TVV

Thank you Ibrahim, the sword you posted is indeed similar in the use of brass as material for the guard and the band below the guard. However, the guard is more complex than the one on my sword, and with the three prongs looks Maghrebi, does not it? I understand that as far back as you can trace this sword it has been in South Arabia, and not in North Africa.

Regards,
Teodor

My Sword ~ The knuckle guard is curved; not at right angles... Its from Red Sea Regions / Zanzibar. Virtually no swords here are from North Africa. I would certainly say this has come out of Yemen .. probably sucked into that region via Zanzibar... but not North African.

For three pronged versions see Butins chart at http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ighlight=butin on # 16.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/g/genpub/A...;view=fulltext where at page 75 a most peculiar link to the word Nimcha occurs. This surfaces in 1725 and mentions the name of the owner of such a weapon...and probably earlier suggesting an Indian provenance as copied in below...Quote"

Page 75
EQUIPMENT. -- (B) OFFENSIVE ARMS; I, "SHORT" ARMS. 75 respect to their sword-belts, which are in general very broad and handsomely embroidered; and, though on horseback, they wear them over the shoulder." But the sword was not always carried in a belt hung from the shoulder. On plate 8 in B.M. Or. 375 (Rieu, 785), Azam Shah carries his sword by three straps hanging from a waist-belt.

The generic name of a sword was tegh (Arabic), shamsher (Persian) or talwar (Hindi). The Arabic word s8aif was also used occasionally. One kind of shortsword was called the nzmchah-8samsher (Steingass 1445). It was the weapon carried by Ibrahim Quli Khan in 1137 H. (1725), when he made his attack on Hamid Khan at the governor's palace in Ahmadabad (Gujarat), Mirat-i-Ahmadi, fol. 179a. It is also to be found in the Akbarndmah, Lucknow edition, ii, 225, second line.

I have not seen in Indian works the word paldrak used for a sword in Maujmil-ut-tarikh bacd Nidiriyah, p. 110, line 3. Names of the various parts are (B.M. N~. 6599 fol. 84a), teqhah, blade, nabai, furrows on blade, qabzah, hilt, jaenarela(?), sarnal or muhnal and tahnal, metal mountings of scabbard, kamrsal (the belt?) 1, bandtr (?). The quality or temper of a blade was its ab (water) or jauhar (lustre). One name of the belt was haamd,il (Steingass, 430, plural of hirnalat); and Khair-ud-din, cIbratnama/h, i, 91, uses the word thus, in repeating the speech of one Daler Khan and another man to Shah cAlam (1173 H.), "fidwz az wafte kih sipar o shamsher ra hamd,il kardah-em, gde ba dushman-i-khud pushl na namadah": "Since we hung from our shoulders sword and shield never have we shown an enemy our back." Another word that I have seen used for a sword-belt is kamr-i-khanjar, see Steingass 1049; also Budaoni, text, 441, Ranking 566. Shamsher. This word when used with a more specific I This is described in Qanoone Islam, app. XXVIII, as a belt worn by women, consisting of square metal tablets hinged together. I find it named in native authors as part of men's equipment".Unquote.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Further to my post above there is a reference to the Akbarnama however, ...The Akbarnama which translates to Book of Akbar, is the official chronicle of the reign of Akbar, the third Mughal Emperor (r. 1556–1605), commissioned by Akbar himself by his court historian and biographer, Abul Fazl who was one of the nine jewels in Akbar's court. It was written in Persian, the literary language of the Mughals, and includes vivid and detailed descriptions of his life and times. (The book took 7 years to make)

If the note at #32 above is correct it means that the sword called a Nimcha was around far earlier than first thought (if the supposition that the work spans the period 1556–1605) and that a closer relationship may exist with the Indian form and design.

The time frame precedes the ejection of the Portuguese from Muscat(1650) by as much as 100 years and well before the Nimcha could have been used by Baluch Mercenaries working for the Omani Rulers on the Zanj.

A reference exists on the short sword being used by Ibrahim Quli Khan ; please see~ https://books.google.com.om/books?id...20khan&f=false

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.