My first Nimcha

TVV · 9th July 2024, 05:44 PM

Jim the Ethiopian blade you show is now in Stu's collection, was in mine before, and I am very certain that it received its current hilt in Yemen. There are Yemeni nimcha types and they are generally cruder than the Zanzibar versions, with the pommel at a 90 degree angle as opposed to the smaller angle on Zanzibar grips.

Back to the sword that started the thread. While this one is without any doubt Algerian, based on the scabbard, I wonder if we should attribute all earlier nimchas with brass guards to Algeria. Either they were not popular in Morocco until later, when the form was adopted with local Moroccan guard versions, or they were popular in a wider area, and not just in Algeria, and we are wrong in trying to classify these on geographic basis instead of chronological one.

9th July 2024, 05:44 PM	#10
TVV Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,614	Jim the Ethiopian blade you show is now in Stu's collection, was in mine before, and I am very certain that it received its current hilt in Yemen. There are Yemeni nimcha types and they are generally cruder than the Zanzibar versions, with the pommel at a 90 degree angle as opposed to the smaller angle on Zanzibar grips. Back to the sword that started the thread. While this one is without any doubt Algerian, based on the scabbard, I wonder if we should attribute all earlier nimchas with brass guards to Algeria. Either they were not popular in Morocco until later, when the form was adopted with local Moroccan guard versions, or they were popular in a wider area, and not just in Algeria, and we are wrong in trying to classify these on geographic basis instead of chronological one.