Spanish Morocco Berber sword

Jim McDougall · 21st January 2019, 11:15 PM

I think the combining of 'foreign' blades in local style hilts in colonial regions is of course a common scenario, but personally I regard these 'incarnations' of weapons as i.e. ...a Moroccan s'boula with Gras bayonet blade etc. There were many versions of s'boula with other types of blades typically bayonets.

I suppose that there are those who might regard the example as a Gras bayonet with a s'boula hilt. I am not sure which would be more correct, but depending on the context of its provenance, in Morocco, it is to me a s'boula.
In a collection of French arms or in European context it could be a Gras bayonet with a s'boula hilt from Morocco.

With the input from Marc, who was most well informed on arms in Spain (and its colonies), there was production of these in the Toledo armory in the mid 19th c.....it seems their limited production might have included these kinds of arms.

From my perspective, it does not seem that arms which arrived in a location such as colonial Spanish Morocco would have been of forms which would have invited production of copies. From what I understand of the Rif War which ensued through the 1920s from continuous insurgence in years before by the Rif tribes, the Spanish forces were a hodgepodge of conscripts and troops from many places, including Cuba etc.
Descriptions of these campaigns note low morale and struggles among these troops and that they often bartered away materials including some arms, which seems a pretty constant source for these military arms throughout the Sahara.

In considering my comments about exclusion of these sword types by Buttin in his works, perhaps they were later there than his residence and study as these campaigns in which these might have arrived were in the 1920s.

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21st January 2019, 11:15 PM	#22
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,295	I think the combining of 'foreign' blades in local style hilts in colonial regions is of course a common scenario, but personally I regard these 'incarnations' of weapons as i.e. ...a Moroccan s'boula with Gras bayonet blade etc. There were many versions of s'boula with other types of blades typically bayonets. I suppose that there are those who might regard the example as a Gras bayonet with a s'boula hilt. I am not sure which would be more correct, but depending on the context of its provenance, in Morocco, it is to me a s'boula. In a collection of French arms or in European context it could be a Gras bayonet with a s'boula hilt from Morocco. With the input from Marc, who was most well informed on arms in Spain (and its colonies), there was production of these in the Toledo armory in the mid 19th c.....it seems their limited production might have included these kinds of arms. From my perspective, it does not seem that arms which arrived in a location such as colonial Spanish Morocco would have been of forms which would have invited production of copies. From what I understand of the Rif War which ensued through the 1920s from continuous insurgence in years before by the Rif tribes, the Spanish forces were a hodgepodge of conscripts and troops from many places, including Cuba etc. Descriptions of these campaigns note low morale and struggles among these troops and that they often bartered away materials including some arms, which seems a pretty constant source for these military arms throughout the Sahara. In considering my comments about exclusion of these sword types by Buttin in his works, perhaps they were later there than his residence and study as these campaigns in which these might have arrived were in the 1920s.