Zanzibar?

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Hi Jim,
You seem to agree with my thoughts at #2 above where I commented that I had not seen any CONCLUSIVE evidence that this hilt style was produced in Zanzibar. Also I agree that us collectors tend to like to put things on nice little boxes, but I suppose that if we talk about such things as "Zanzibari" hilts and "Wahabite" daggers then everyone else knows what the subject is, even if the terms used are perhaps way off beam.
I DO like the term "Arab" for these swords as that is what they actually are, rather than Moroccan or Magrebi. To me "Arab" means from the Arabian Peninsula rather that large part of North Africa, which is also inhabited by Arabian races.
Regards Stu

Exactly Stu, and as I noted I admit that I long followed that same philosophy and truly wanted to better categorize certain types of weapons and better understand developments of the forms. The thing is that in reality things don't always fall so perfectly into place, and often a generally held classification proves incorrect.

I think what is important is to try to comprehensively gather as much data as possible on the topic or form at hand, then to document it as responsibly as we can. You're right on the use of terms, sometimes even loosely classified terms are easier to use in discussions where semantically they are familiar to those involved. For example 'nimcha' is commonly accepted as the term for these saif, yet we know it is not necessarily the correct term.

Best regards,
Jim