Zanzibari (?) Saif for Comment

[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.

[Jim McDougall]

This is brilliant research Ibrahiim!!! and I admire your tenacity in plowing through all of these references. It is well noted that the term nimcha is present at a much earlier date than we had realized in Indian context.
While we know the sword itself with the distinctive hilt system with downturned quillons was known in the early 17th century, and perhaps even earlier in accord with Italian hilts similar in the latter 16th (North , 1975)..these were believed in the Arab sphere.This information gives us a better idea of this form in Indian context.

It is more than a conundrum trying to discern the direction of diffusion with these various forms and their features and elements as provenance and depictions are limited at best. Even then they are subject to scrutiny. It is difficult to determine from narratives and records exactly what these swords described actually looked like, as we have encountered many times with 'katar'; 'tegha; and a number of other descriptive terms. Still, the presence of this term and its earliest use referring to a kind of sword is most important.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

This is brilliant research Ibrahiim!!! and I admire your tenacity in plowing through all of these references. It is well noted that the term nimcha is present at a much earlier date than we had realized in Indian context.
While we know the sword itself with the distinctive hilt system with downturned quillons was known in the early 17th century, and perhaps even earlier in accord with Italian hilts similar in the latter 16th (North , 1975)..these were believed in the Arab sphere.This information gives us a better idea of this form in Indian context.

It is more than a conundrum trying to discern the direction of diffusion with these various forms and their features and elements as provenance and depictions are limited at best. Even then they are subject to scrutiny. It is difficult to determine from narratives and records exactly what these swords described actually looked like, as we have encountered many times with 'katar'; 'tegha; and a number of other descriptive terms. Still, the presence of this term and its earliest use referring to a kind of sword is most important.

Thank you Jim, My post at 31 above mentions Quote" 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".Unquote. This may be quite relevant in terms of the word Nimcha although it describes it as misspelled as nzmchah-8samsher..it probably means Nimcha-Shamshiir...Remembering that the original script was done in the Persian language;I think this is important since a lot of Baluch words come from Persian and since a third of their country lies in Iran the diffusion of artifacts and linguistics is clear.

It is further interesting that what appears to be a short form of Shamshiir appears on the Buttin charts but without a specific name. I agree that the word Nimcha more likely spread across the region probably via India via trade and war and although we find it odd... and confused because of the North Africa style (perhaps incorrectly attributed with the same name) the Akbarnama seems to be shining a light on the origin of the term likely to reach into the realms of Persian history..and giving a clue as to why the Baluch mercenaries operating on the Zanj had a weapon called Nimcha in their armoury.

For interest the Butin Chart with the 1010 exhibit bottom left... Is this the Nimcha-Shamsheer refered to in the Akbarnama?

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.