Zanzibar, Saiid The Great and his influence on Omani swords and weapons.

[Peter Hudson]

Said Sultan jointly ruled Oman from 1804 to 1806 but took control and killed the other contestant and ruled onwards for more than 5 decades and became famous for the far reaching move making Zanzibar the new Omani capital in about 1830/40.

With the support of Indian Traders who held the shipping answer to development of the Trade Hub he virtually converted Zanzibar to the Spice Islands and as a gigantic hub for Slavery, Rhino Horn, Rhino Hide, Ivory, Giraffe Horn, Salt,Textiles and a host of other goods. Trade between America and Zanzibar included thousands of Elephant tusks destined to be piano keys and Ivory pool and snooker balls.

Spices became so important that the industry of spice farming required a gigantic workforce on Zanzibar of slaves although in its own right slavery provided many slave markets in Stonetown through which thousands of African slaves were transported all over the Indian Ocean up the Red Sea around Arabia up the gulf to Persia and Northern Arabia and onward to India and beyond.

Meanwhile the ruler came up with a plan to enhance his own popularity creating the idea of developing a new design for a Royal Hilt to a Muscat Khanjar ..and closely followed by a Royal Hilt to the Sayf Yemaani often termed the old Omani battle sword which originally came about sometime between the 6th and 12th Century. It was a stroke of good luck that one of his wives was very keen to support both the new hilt designs and the new Royal head dress and the new Royal Cumerbund. ...

The driving force behind these designs was..The Persian Princess Sheherazade...She eventually fell out of favour and ran away with her lover and joined the Persian Army . The ruler had many wives and something like 40 children in total.

In a bid to increase his immage he invented a dancing sword called simply the Omani Sayf. It was to be a flexible dancing implement not a weapon but had some design features taken from the old Omani Battle Sword as well as a scabbard similar to it. It was designed with a long hilt and had a flat spatulate tip and razor sharp edges. To give it a warlike feel it was awarded the same shield The Terrs ... as the Old omani Battle Sword and it was entered into the Traditional Funun in the Mock swords battle which was a show only and a winner was awarded by touching the opponents thumb with his swords flat tip on the oponents non sword hand... one touch ended the contest. The last thing the ruler wanted was people being killed while dancing with this item thus the very flexible blade and it had to be able to have the blade bent back as far as the hilt. In fact the blade was made to buzz and vibrate in the air being held by thumb and forfinger whilst the palm of the same hand slapped the long hilt creating the effect. Unlike the Sayf Yemaani which could run an opponent through and chop through head armour.

It was decreed that this accoutrement was to be hoisted on march past of the Monarch and at gatherings of VIPs as well as at weddings and both Eids. Being included in the famous Funun meant that the item was a part of Omani History forever. Soldiers carried the Sayf as they were required to greet the Sultan in a sort of tribal salute shimmering the blades as they leapt in the air ...For killing people Spears, Khanjars and Battle Swords were used as well as Abu Futtilla .. and Canon. Being included in the famous Funun meant that the item was a part of Omani History forever.

To this day it has the same place in Omani Tradition and I have witnessed thousands of Firqat ...local Militia shimmering past the Royal Dias some throwing and catching their Sayfs by the hilts and many others buzzing their swords in the air...but while they looked very warlike this was only designed to greet their leader in the old way designed by the early Sultan.

My plan is to provide members with several short paragraphs outlining other developments during the Omani Zanzibar situation. Please feel free to ask as many questions as you like.

Kind Regards,
Peter Hudson.

[Jim McDougall]

This is an excellent synopsis of the Oman/Zanzibar situation in the early years of the 19th century, and toward the weapons used in these areas, in particular the conical hilted long sword simply termed the Omani sayf.

The long swords with long cylindrical hilt used in these dance ceremonies became recognized as dynastic symbols, and seems led to the favor of swords of this design to be worn publicly as a sword of office and status by officials and merchants.

There has been a great deal of consternation on the confusing of the dance oriented versions of these long swords with examples made for public wear with substantial European blades which would be fully viable for defensive or combat use.

The sayf yemani (battle sword) has remained outside this confusion and as you have noted, provided certain influences factored into the conical hilt forms which became dynastic forms leaving the traditional design that had been in place many centuries.

Images are of the sayf yemani/battle sword of long traditional history in Oman, primarily with Ibathi in Nizwa interior.

The Omani long sword, sayf as worn by Omani gentlemen as sword of office, status and dynastic symbol of Said.

The Omani/Zanzibari 'kittareh' with curved blade most commonly worn by officials, merchants and slave factors in their expeditions into the interior, however clearly the long swords were present as well.

These are the primary swords in this context, and I look forward the more on the khanjhars and their hilt designs.

Hopefully there will be images of the dance versions of these sayfs which will illustrate the character of the thin blades used in the Funun.

While these have been discussed on a recent thread and of course in threads some time ago, it will be great to have these weapons discussed further here to clarify their character.

[Peter Hudson]

Here us a brief look at another aspect of the design on Omani Sayf in this case a look at the Royal Signature and the silver design often seen on Sayf Hilts and silver stitched decoration on Omani Khanjar belts.

[Peter Hudson]

The Kitara . Said the Great had an agreement to send in traders in the Great Lakes region and it is here that the hunter traders came upon the large curved blades of German Cavalry swords which originally had guards and a short hilt on a tang far shorter than the tang on their Sayfs. The blades were huge and curved with a substantial point but stiff not flexible. and with a heavy backblade. What they needed to do was to incorporate this blade, convert it to a style similar to the Sayf and to Omanise the item...thus The Kitara was born.

Bunyoro-Kitara The Kingdom of - The Sword

This was a difficult weapon to trace since the country of Bunyoro-Kitara decided about 10 years ago to cleanse its web sites of any reference to Omani traders slavery or anything related to swords etc...Luckily I got in among their old system before it was wiped clean. Kitara is or was not an arabic word and unless spelled exactly as Kitara it simply didnt compute when searching on the web for a country...however it was dredged up searching through Burton by Jim Mcdougall thus we cracked the problem by chance; The Country was Bunyoro- Kitara sitting in the centre of The African Great Lakes thus Kitara is an African word. tHE blade an adopted and adapted weapon given a long Omani Hilt and an extended tang and pomel and an Omani Scabbard plus The Omani Terrs.

Finally theses swords were very distinctively Omani... The long hilts unmistakeable on either a curved blade or straight and usually the Hunting Patrol accompanied by spear and gunpowder support plus Baluch mercenaries. They were given Carte Blanche to hunt and transport goods to and from Bunyoro-Kitara in a pact lasting probably about 4 decades...and as seen by the map below this shows the importance of the trade route to and from Zanzibar....The Trading Hub of Said The Great..

[Peter Hudson]

To assist readers here are a few threads to check out;
1. The African Great Lakes and The Omani Empire.
2. The Omani Khanjar.
Indeed the easiest way to do this is to type into search the word OMANI and any Tittle that has the word Omani in it... just whip through it and soak up the detail...Peter Hudson

Just to note that Jim McDougall effectively nailed the provenance of Kitara belonging to Bunyoro-Kitara at #5 thread on The African Great Lakes and the Omani Empire. a couple of years ago where he wrote I Quote"Here we note that the broadswords of Oman and Zanzibar we have known as 'kattara' were clearly well known by the 1850s in the interior of Africa, and with that to the Omani Sultanate in Zanzibar, but they were not known by that term, only as usual, as sayf.
As also shown, these were worn as symbols of prestige and power, but not intended as weapons.

In the regions of the interior, and as clearly adopted from the traditions there, in the then Kingdom of Kitara, the sword was the key element of stature and power, and called KITARA.

From "The Warrior Tradition on Modern Africa", ed. Ali Amin Mazrui (p.24)
"...in Bunyoro too, the word 'KITARA' , means a sword but has historically come to signify an empire, worn by individuals possessed of significant virtue".
from "Bunyoro Kitara in the North Interlacustrine Region",
by G. N. Uzoigwe, "East African Kingdoms".Unquote.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you very much for noting that research of some years ago where in the voluminous text characteristic of Burton, I happened upon this remarkable comparison. I found other corroboration for the 'kitara' sword and the term which seemed compellingly to fit with the Omani term 'kattara' for their swords.

As can be seen on concurrent threads, there is often a great deal of concern and debate on the proper terms used to describe certain ethnographic sword forms, currently those of India.

In the case of the Sudanese 'kaskara' I began trying to find the origin and application of that term for their familiar broadswords. Over years, I had no success and virtually nobody I reached out to had any idea where the term came from. Further, it seems there is virtually no awareness of the term with the people of the Sudan, their term for these simply, sa'if.

I had however found that the earliest use of the term was by Burton (1884) in his "Book of the Sword", but he made so specific mention of the origin of the term, but just used it to describe the sword.

It was not until Iain Norman, years later in his research on North African tribes found that this was a Baghirmi term, and the Burton use of it seems to have somehow influenced writers to apply it accordingly.

This seems to be a familiar circumstance at how certain terms for certain ethnographic forms which become commonly used in 'collectors parlance' .

[kai]

1. The African Great Lakes and The Omani Empire.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27256

2. The Omani Khanjar.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=14878