The Sword of Kanta, a Nimcha and Some Clues as to the Origins of Both

[TVV]

It is Thanksgiving week, I have more free time than usual and as a result my mind tends to wonder about some of my favorite topics, such as nimchas, swords from the Sahel and their origins.

One book that has always fascinated me is "The Nigerian Panoply" by Bivar. It is really a booklet published 60 years ago, but it is full of wonderful objects that somehow show up in North Nigerian treasuries, such as a late Medieval mail hauberk from Germany, a Balkan flintlock pistol, a Mameluke saber and most interestingly of all, the mysterious sword of Kanta. It is ascribed to Muhammad Kanta Kotal, the founder of the Kebbi Emirate who rebelled against Songhai and built a small Empire in Hausaland in the beginning of the 16th century. Here are the pictures from Bivar:







Sadly, there is no picture of the full blade as Bivar dismisses it as a later addition to the hilt, but it is a straight blade possibly from a European backsword. Anyone want to venture a guess based on the markings? The hilt on the other hand is well photographed and has a lion/monster/dragon head pommel (Bivar believes it to be a lion) and downturned quillons with monster head finials, in a very Timurid inspired style.

The closest parallel in terms of the hilt is a nimcha from a private collection, which is now published in the "Gold and Damascus Steel Catalogue" from this year:



This is a pretty unique nimcha, as there are not many with such a hilt. There is a metal hilted nimcha with a monster head pommel in Buttin, but it has a more typical nimcha guard, whereas this one has similar downturned quillons as the sword of Kanta. Marcus Pilz, the editor of the catalogue does indeed reference Bivar in the description. The blade with the star of David mark is very interesting, and Pilz may be correct that it may not be a European import, but a blade made in Northern Africa or the Middle East. The scabbard is also quite interesting with decoration in what looks like Souther Indian style and potentially much later. Pilz dates this nimcha to the first half of the 17th century, or a century to century and a half past Kanta's reign.

If this style of hilt was used in the Maghreb, then that provides a potential clue as to how the sword of Kanta's hilt got there - trade between the Sahel and the Maghreb was well established. However, so many questions remain. How should we date these swords, and is it possible that the sword of Kanta is actually later and one that belonged to a descendant, rather than to Kanta himself? How did the nimcha from "Gold and Damascus Steel" get its Indian decorated scabbard (if it is Indian in the first place)? If a crossguard form that originated in Central Asia in the 15th century travel that far west in the Islamic World, are the monster head pommels also an Eastern Asian element that made is West? Are nimcha grips a stylized representation of these monster/lion heads?

Some of these questions may be impossible to answer presently, but it is still fun to ask ourselves and discuss.