Mystery Inscription on Controversial Sword

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by roanoa

Great sword. From Morocco. I have seen a couple of nice pictures of Berber warriors wearing them. Though this type of sword has been reported as being from Ethiopia, I would say that it is not. The wrong identification is probably due to the fact that the hilt "looks" Ethiopian. But it ends there. It is quite possible that a few of these swords showed up in Ethiopian market places. A lot of weapons from all over the world did. Tony Tirri just published his secon GREAT book "ISLAMIC AND NATIVE WEAPONS OF COLONIAL AFRICA" and he agrees about it being from Morocco. When information on African weapons was VERY scanty, this sword was shown in A WEAPONS HISTORY OF AFRICA by A.W. Lindert. He said it was Ethiopian. Guess there was nobody to question his statement. But.... he said many things that were not accurate. I'll stick to the Berber version. As far as the "writing" is concern, I will suggest that it is simply a decorative pattern.
Have fun in Baltimore, Charles.

Thank you Roanoa for citing that reference by Lindert. I couldn't recall the title. I agree with what you're saying about these swords turning up in Ethiopia, in fact I've mentioned it several times in previous posts. Its very nice to have support from someone with your established knowledge of Ethiopian weapons. I'd like to see the pictures of Berbers wearing these! That would have been perfect to add to the presentation in 2003 stating these were actually from Morocco! I'm also glad that Mr.Tirri has acknowledged the Moroccan attribution on these, and very much look forward to seeing his new book! While his previous book, like most, has a couple of items pertaining to certain weapons that there were disagreement on, it remains a great book for collectors. I'm sure the new one on Africa will be also!

Best regards,
Jim

[Tim Simmons]

I have just noticed "roanoa" response to this thread. When and how can we get this next book by Tirri. I would need one.

[roanoa]

Tony will probably wish to announce the release of his book at the Baltimore's Show. Im am sure Artzi, Denner and others will carry it. It's HUGE... A good TEN pounds and worth every penny.... (Could not resist the pun....).