Hello Fernando,
Thanks for your post. Yes I have seen your reference which also states the case for spoken Arabic. Quote"Arabic was used as a lingua franca across the Islamic empires, whose sizes necessitated the need for a common language, and spread across the Arab and Muslim worlds" Unquote.
In dealing with the peculiarities of two essentially regional designs of Nimcha i.e. The Moroccan and The Zanzibari; The common denominator is The Ottoman Empire and driven by the linguistic situation in both Regions meaning The Indian Ocean and its surroundings and The Meditteranean. It can be seen that Arabic was the lead Language ...in its spoken form...The primary Lingua Franka. Thus it was a CULTURAL situation.
It may be seen that in this case where a ship bourne sword was required and that applies in both Moroccan and Zanzibari requirements...that a tried and tested Cutlass type of sword would be ideal for ship defence and boarding party attacks ...
I use the term Form follows Fashion in the same way that court swords in Europe became shorter since they were often carried at Court and worn under the Court Dress Jacket....and these Jackets became shorter so the swords did the same...Thus it can be envisaged that the Nimcha swords of both regions followed many quirks and foibles specific to the regions it entered...
The most extraordinary variant is probably the Zanzibari Nimcha...which somehow sports a Turtle atop its Pommel, An odd squigle on the quillons similar to the Tughra of the 19thC ruler, Circular Sworls on the Scabbard Leather ...Weird gold over Ivory decoration on some VIP swords but overall a fascinating resemblance to a horses head grip and Pommeland almost exactly the same look as the Ottoman Pallasch hilt.
I insert here a note about the Knuckle Guards... since the squared Moroccan hilt was designed to ride up high on the chest almost under the left armpit which neccessitated a squared off knuckleguard as a rounded form wouldn't work but the squared off item did as it fitted flat against the ribcage...A rounded Knuckle Guard tends to make the weapon roll.....In the Zanzibar variant the sword was worn formally on the belt and simply followed the same form as the Pallasch in that respect. The blades were changed probably since the Ottoman item was very expensive looking at the Islamic inlay and lighter cheaper blades were available from German sources for Morocco and Hadramaut or Indian sources for Zanzibar.
Conclusion. Based on the similarities on the hilt of the Ottoman Pallasch and using the features outlined by Buttin in his quite detailed charts and from the history of the Ottoman Navy in the Indian Ocean and backed up in our own Forum Library my view is that the Pallasch is the prime suspect in the design flow across both regions in the case of both the Arabian and African variants...and seek the support from Forum to make that assessment.
Peter Hudson
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