Nimcha with markings

[Jim McDougall]

This Moroccan sa'if (commonly termed nimcha) is indeed a very 'pretty' example, and seems to be mounted with what appears to be a French blade. While the sellers description insists this is not a European blade, noting that there were three manufacturing centers for swords in Morocco (apparantly from A.Tirri, "Islamic Weapons: Maghrib to Moghul", 2003, p.25; "..the primary manufacturing centers for swords were Meknes, Tetuan and Marrakech". The previous sentence is excluded, "...blades were mostly imported from Europe").

The blade is narrow and suggests French military sabres of 19th century, the blade has the forte block as often seen on military sabres of Europe, in which there is a built up section at the hilt prior to the sharpened edge,though the concept in its presence is essentially that of the 'Indian ricasso'.

The block letter stamp for ZAOUE, as Ariel has shown, apparantly denotes a French gunmaker of the 18th century,whose firm carried into the 19th. These stamped letters suggest likely that the firm was likely an outfitter or arms exporter as well by the 19th century, the block letter stamps similar to those used on arms late 18th into the 19th c. The oval cartouche on the opposite side of the blade suggests possibly armoury, or possibly one of the noted centers where the blade was received and mounted.

It seems that these Moroccan sa'if's are almost always mounted with European blades, and I would be interested to know of any examples mounted with locally made blades. While this blade is apparantly French, and not locally made, it by no means diminishes the obvious appeal or authenticity of this sword.

ze thought plickens!

All best regards,
Jim