13th January 2012, 11:52 AM | #1 |
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Abyssinian ? sword
I have had this sword in my collection for around 30 years and always thought of it as Abyssinian . I would value any comments from members .
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13th January 2012, 01:01 PM | #3 |
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Jiboula, or s'boola.
See here: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlight=jiboula Long discussion about Ethiopia, Morocco, Falash Mura etc. |
13th January 2012, 01:03 PM | #4 | |
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13th January 2012, 02:23 PM | #5 | |
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Thanks Iain .. oh well 30 years of delusion ! This means yet another rearrangement of my walls .. wish I had known about this forum years ago ! |
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13th January 2012, 02:24 PM | #6 | |
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Cheers |
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13th January 2012, 05:31 PM | #7 | |
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As seen in the linked discussion from 2008, these actually were generally held by collectors to have been from Zanzibar as referenced in Demmin (1877) then by Burton (1884) as these were seen by Burton in his visits there in 1857. I am unsure whether Demmin copied the attribution from Burton whose work on Zanzibar was not published until 1872, or if it was the other way around. Burtons references and line drawings in any case are identical to Demmins, but I have handled Burton's original manuscripts in pencil, which I believe included these sketches. Whatever the case, the attribution was simply presumed as these weapons were visually seen in Zanzibar by him, and probably copied by Demmin in compiling his work. In the book on Charles Buttin's collections published posthumously in Rummilly , France in 1933, the misattribution is noted, and the correct identification as the Moroccan s'boula is established. This is emphasized by the fact that Charles Buttin and his sons had varying residence in Morocco over many years and very well knew their weapons. It should be noted that many of these are in scabbards with baldric type carry rings, which are similar in configuration to koummya. Richmond, the Abyssinian presumption is actually somewhat established by the diffusion of these weapons via trade entrepot in trans Saharan routes into those regions as well as Zanzibar. In a relatively obscure booklet titled 'The Weapons of Africa' by Lindert (cannot recall exact date) one of these is shown, and there are extant examples known with Amharic insciption on blade. By original provenance however, the type appears to be Moroccan. All the best, Jim |
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13th January 2012, 05:36 PM | #8 | |
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Well thanks for that interesting contribution Jim. This now puts me in a quandary as I have never collected the weapons of Morocco ... so this has been a cuckoo in the nest all these years !
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13th January 2012, 06:55 PM | #9 |
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LOL! Actually you did, just didnt know it yet It seems you are widely diverse in the scope of your collecting, and to me most ethnographic collectors brach into many fields. Many have favorite or specialist areas, but as shown, through trade and diffusion of forms, finding variants and tracking the history of them is pure adventure, and few of us can resist sallying forth into those!
All the best, Jim |
13th January 2012, 07:57 PM | #10 | |
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