Arab Cutlasses of the Pirate Coast

[Jim McDougall]

Thanks very much Teo, so the Moroccan/Algerian sa'if which has long been established as the weapon of the Barbary corsairs is pretty much the single 'pirate' oriented sword of 'Arab' form. (illustration 1)

I see what you mean on the Yemeni/ Zanzibar (Oman) form sa'if (like #1 commonly termed nimcha), cruder and simpler. These hilts actually seem cast.

The conical Omani sa'ifs as noted (my example #3 is pretty rough) were it seems often highly embellished, silvered etc. as worn in a status oriented sense. In research a number of years ago, as per burton (1885) and Demmin (1877) these were entirely unlikely as combat weapons.

However the similar conical hilted examples with curved blades (usually German) were. These were the actual 'kitara' swords (illustr. #4).

I agree with your observations on these Omani forms being most likely in the Hormuz, Muscat areas, and if any of the Yemeni forms did find use there it was surely incidental. Thank you again, well explained insights!