Zanzibar Nimchas, a More In-Depth Discussion

[TVV]

Jim, I always appreciate your comments. While it is true that ethnographic weapons do not have rigid geographic boundaries like standard military patterns would, there are enough differences to allow us to differentiate between regions, in this case Oman and Yemen.

The Yemeni nimcha you are showing is a great example of showing these differences. The guard is much simplified, compared to the more complex Omani guards. The knuckleguard is straight, while on Omani swords it is curved - some would call it S-shaped.

Another important difference is in the blades - your example is well marked, and probably is a European imported blade. While some of the Omani nimcha blades may be European in origin, their blades are almost never marked, and the few that are marked bear marks that are not European in origin. This is really puzzling when contrasted to Omani saifs and kattaras, which are extensively marked with European marks (or imitations thereof).

The question of how the hilt form travelled from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean is an interesting one and potentially a subject of another post or even thread.

I am however fairly confident in the Zanzibar attribution of many of these, as we have period photos of them (and Hales has a photo of these nimchas in the Comoros, which is as far South-East on the distribution range as it gets). I need to post the pictures I have and then we can discuss what we see in them.

Teo