Writing on an Ethiopian blade

[Terry K]

My friend picked up a nice Ethiopian sabre with this on the blade and we are having trouble translating it. Any help would be appreciated.

[kahnjar1]

Hi Terry,
Can't help with the actual translation, but the language is AMHARIC. Hope this helps. Can you please post a pic of the whole sword.
Stu

[Battara]

I agree with Stu, this is Amharic, and according to forum rules, we need you to post pictures of the whole piece please.

[roanoa]

Waiting to see the whole blade, I will venture to say that this line appears right below the portrait of Menelik II? I have found it in both straight and curved European blades.

[Martin Lubojacky]

There is allegedly written "Mohamed Ali kubanya", which means "Mohamed Ali Co.". This is probably supplier company (I saw it on two different blades, too.). Pls post the whole picture

[roanoa]

Well, I was waiting to see the sword (German?), but since Martin jumped the gun.... Here it is. Martin is correct. It is the name of one of the major importer of weaponry in Ethiopia. Muhammed Ali was based in Harar. He imported several patterns of the Wilkinson blades as well, with his name written in English on the spine of the blade. His name was on occasion spelled wrongly as Muhammedalli (one word), as in this case. There is no "end of word dots" between Muhammed and Ali and so it would read as one word. The second word is the phonetic rendition in Amharic of the word COMPANY.

[Martin Lubojacky]

Originally Posted by Martin Lubojacky

There is allegedly written "Mohamed Ali kubanya", which means "Mohamed Ali Co.". This is probably supplier company (I saw it on two different blades, too.). Pls post the whole picture

I learned incidentally, that founder of the Mohamedally Co. was businessman Mohamed Ally Shaikh Sharafaly. I am quoting from the book/brochure "Addis Ababa old Piazza" by Centre Francais des études éthiopiennes:He was an Indian from Gujurat. He had first set foot in Harar in the early 1890 and he made his start through business ventures with Ras Makonnen, the governor of the city/region. The firm he had created with other British-Indian partners reached its apogee in 1930s. That time it was, as it is written in the brochure, the largest "British" trading company in Ethioia.