"Nimcha blades" on European swords

[TVV]

The question of where European blades came to Morocco is hard to answer in a succinct manner, because there is a great variety of blades with Moroccan hilts.

Here is one with what looks like a European cavalry blade from the second half of the 19th century. Such patterns seem to have been quite popular in Morocco in the late 19th, early 20th century. But pinpointing a specific European model is hard, and one may not even exist, with this blade simply made in a certain style and meant to be exported to North Africa:


Then here is another one, with what looks like a blade taken from an 18th century British hanger, with the running fox mark associated with bladesmiths working in Birmingham:



Finally, here is one with a shortened backsword blade with astral marking, associated with 18th century Solingen production. I have seen similar markings on Austrian hussar sabers, but being focused on African Islamic arms and not on European ones I would actually struggle to come up with an image of a European backsword with these markings:



It seems that there was a market in Morocco for all kinds of blades that had become obsolete or surplus in Europe, some of which continued further on trade routes to the Sahel, while others were kept and mounted locally.