Sboula for Comments

[Kubur]

Hi Teodor,

I will go a bit deeper and say that the Genoui, Janwi is the Moroccan version of the Corsican stiletto or the Genoese stiletto.
On this picture, the knife to the left is a Moroccan Genoui and not a s'bula or sboula.
For me the best version of the Genoese stiletto is the Algerian khodmi or Bu saidi knife: the same kind of hilt and same kind of blade...
And to come back to the beginning, your dagger is a Moroccan s'bula for sure.

[TVV]

Kubur,

Given all the evidence for European influence on Maghrebi arms, I believe you are onto something regarding the blade shape similarity between stilettos and genoi and khodmi daggers. It would make sense that the locals would call that blade style after Genoa, whose merchants dominated the Western Mediterranean trade at the time when the style made it to Morocco and Algeria.

Which book is the illustration from?

Teodor

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by TVV

Kubur,

Given all the evidence for European influence on Maghrebi arms, I believe you are onto something regarding the blade shape similarity between stilettos and genoi and khodmi daggers. It would make sense that the locals would call that blade style after Genoa, whose merchants dominated the Western Mediterranean trade at the time when the style made it to Morocco and Algeria.

Which book is the illustration from?

Teodor

Hi unfortunately I just picked up on Google images like a lot of members...

[TVV]

Here is another one, made from a European cavalry sword blade. The hilt is very crude and looks like the branches of the crossguard were removed on purpose. The tip has been reshaped as well.

I suspect that these daggers were made from European sword blades on purpose, and not necessarily from broken and recycled blades.

[TVV]

I obtained a copy of Lindert's booklet as I was curious about the Ethiopian connection. I am attaching scans of the photo where he shows a sboula with two swords from Ethiopia, as well as a scan of the text that refers to the sboula. It does not appear that the attribution was made based on Amharic text on the blade.

The entire booklet is riddled with wrong attributions, and I get the feeling that while Lindert travelled through Africa in search of arms and armor specimens to collect, the locals sold him anything they could, along with some embellished stories. I guess coming up with tales about a secretive group of black Jewish artisans is a better sales description than "unknown sword from somewhere else".

[werecow]

I thought I'd add this pretty s'boula specimen with rather nice scabbard that I watched pass me by at auction a few moons ago, for posterity. Did any of you here get it?

EDIT: Not sure what the best option was here but given that I don't own it I can't really give more details, so I just chose the first s'boula thread I found and added it here instead of starting a new thread.

[TVV]

Very interesting and somewhat unique. The silver filigree in the middle of the scabbard is not what we typically see on Moroccan weapons.

[werecow]

I've recently acquired this s'boula which has similar markings on the blade, so I thought I'd add it here. Total length 74.5 cm; blade length 60 cm; grip width 11.3 cm; grip thickness 2.5 cm. Some unfortunate pitting and the grip wire is a little loose, but I thought it was an interesting example nonetheless.

Point is sharp as a needle! Is anything known about the use and history of these? Shape-wise the grip reminds me a bit of baselard daggers, but the blade is as pointy as those of a rondel dagger (but with a different cross section and not as thick). I could see it being used against mail armor, although I wonder if the blade is robust enough to withstand the forces involved there.

[roanoa]

Behold, the power of rumors.... When Linbert published his ground braking booklet on African weapons, there was indeed very little published on the subject. And whatever he said in his booklet was taken by most as gospel. However, the mistakes are many. Including the sboula being manufactured by the Fellashas. Where did he get that idea? Rumor (again) says that some were inscribed in Ge'ez. Was the strange "lettering" on the blade mistake for the very obscure amharic/ge'ez writing? I, for one, would LOVE to see such a blade before making any additional comment.