Hank Reinhardt's The Book of the Sword (34 page)

North African work is frequently confused with work from Arabia, but this should not be so. Prior to the conquest of North Africa by the Arabs, and the destruction of the Christian societies, there was a lot of European influence and many of the weapons in use were of common shape with European blades. These were generally long straight swords, with some of the more curiously shaped Egyptian weapons still around. The actual knowledge of these swords, from written and excavated sources, is quite spotty.

Islamic sword, quaddara, 22.5 inches overall length. HRC517.

You will often hear that the swords used in parts of North Africa—the Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, etc.—are not only descended from the sword of the Crusaders, but that many are even actual Crusader blades. This is sheer nonsense, and arose from the erroneous concept that all Near Eastern swords were curved. Although curved swords were known and used at times, the vast majority of Near Eastern blades were straight and double-edged. The Arabs carried large double-edged straight swords, sometimes quite long, and this was the primary sword in use during the Arabic expansion under Mohammed and his immediate successors. It was not until the influx into the Middle East of horse archers from the steppes of Central Asia in the 13th century that the curved sword became popular, eventually just about completely replacing the older straight sword. (Arab weapons will be dealt with later in another section.) [Editor's note: Hank never got a chance to write that section, even though those swords were some of his favorites.]

One of the most curious of swords is the flissa used by the Kabyle Berbers. There have been many suggestions as to the origin of this sword, from the Egyptian kopesh to the Turkish yataghan. Although it bears some resemblance to the yataghan, it strikes me as being a very inferior weapon.

Flissa.
Yataghan, circa 1800, 33 inches overall length. HRC32.

The sword is quite long, with a straight single-edged blade that is about 36–39 inches in length. The sword does not have any form of crossguard, is frequently octagonal in shape, and has a small rear projection to secure the hand. Although the blade is straight, the edge undulates slightly, and ends in a very long point. The point is so long that it almost forbids the use of this sword for cutting and it appears that this sword is much more suited to thrusting. Whether it was actually used in this fashion I can't say. I've only handled two of them, and both were originals and I was unable to actually play and cut with them. But from this brief association I left with the opinion that the sword was ill balanced for thrusting, and not very efficient as a cutting weapon, with a great likelihood of usage bending the point. I would also advise the reader that I could be mistaken in this, and that it is an opinion formed by only a brief association.

The time span of this sword in North Africa is simply not known. There is no mention of it until quite late, sometime in the 19th century. It is obvious that the sword was in use before this, but there are no other references that I have been able to find.

Nimcha.

Another sword, the nimcha, is believed to be of Arabic origin, but was very popular in North Africa. This sword is best described by the hilt rather than the blade. The hilt is wood, with a rear projection that is large and offers firm support for the hand. The guard is composed of two forward projecting quillons, top and bottom of the blade, and another quillon that turns back into a knuckle bow. The blade is always single-edged, and usually slightly curved. However, I have seen these swords with straight blades. As is to be expected, many of these swords are made with European blades.

These swords appear to be quite effective whether used on horseback, camelback or afoot. Although not having a counterweight in the pommel, these swords are not quite as heavy as many European cavalry swords and the few I've handled gave a favorable impression.

The western world learned of the Gurkhas in the late 18th-early 19th century. Some fifty-odd years previous, the tiny state of Gorkha, located in the Kathmandu valley, had started on a war of conquest that eventually led to the formation of the nation of Nepal. The first king, Prithwi Narayan, was a fierce and brutal ruler, and his descendents were not much different.

Nepalese kukri, 16 inches overall length. HRC545.

Smaller tribes, towns and villages were assimilated, and inevitably that brought the Gurkhas in contact with the British East India Company. War was declared in 1814, and there were two years of bitter conflict before the British were able to enforce a peace on the warlike Gurkhas.

By this time the main battle sword of the Gurkhas had been replaced by firearms. Granted that those who could not afford them used spears and swords, but the majority used firearms, and with a telling effect. But they also carried another weapon that inspired fear in all who faced it: the kukri.

Basically a jungle work knife, the kukri also made a superb fighting weapon. The forward angled blade gave it great cutting power; in combat the edge could be used for thrusting merely by turning the wrist and allowing the blade to enter sideways. The single edge allowed the blade to be gripped and used as a drawknife and with the back of the blade being held rather than the grip, a surprising amount of fine work could be done with the knife. The Gurkhas, being inventive, also kept a very small knife, a file, and a bit of fire-starting punk on the sheath.

Of course the fighting ability of the Gurkhas was the main contributing factor to the awe in which the kukri was held. A fighting race, they have maintained their ability and reputation even today, as witness the wave of fear generated when they embarked for the Falkland Islands to battle Argentina. And they still carry the kukri. . . . 

But where did the kukri come from, and why is it such an effective cutting instrument?

The origin of the forward-angled blade (for such is the technical term for the kukri) has been lost in dim recesses of prehistory. The first of these blades show up in Greece as early as 500 BC. Some are found in the Caucasus only slightly later, about 400 BC. The Iberian Celts were using them at least by 400 BC if not before.

The term most used for the forward-angled blade is "kopis," which is used to describe the Greek sword, and is derived from the Egyptian word "kopesh." It is not clear if this relationship is purely linguistic, or if there was a real relationship between the actual swords.

Kopesh.

Many describe the Egyptian kopesh as the original of these blades. However, this is one opinion that I totally disagree with, for several reasons. The term "kopesh" is used for several blades with different shapes, not just the forward-angled one. The most common shape for a kopesh is that of a sickle, with the blade sharpened on the inside edge. However, there are others where the edge is on the outside curve, and several where the sword is double-edged! One version is simply a wide-curved blade, handle offset, and sharpened on the belly of the curve. Most telling, though, is that the cutting action of all of these swords is completely different from the cutting action of the kukri-shaped blade. (We will examine that cutting action below.)

So, if not derived from the Egyptian curved swords, where does the kukri come from? Now this is pure conjecture, but here is one suggestion as to how this very effective shape was discovered. Once, while studying some bronze swords, I ran across a leaf-shaped blade that had been badly battered in use. One edge was heavily dented and broken, and the whole blade had been bent near the waist of the sword. The other edge, although not nearly as damaged, had definitely seen service. Consider a blade badly damaged on one edge, but the other still in good shape. The sword was turned in the hand, and suddenly it cuts even better! Perhaps this was how some undocumented warrior created this short, effective fighting knife.

We do have archeological evidence that the forward-angled blade, called variously the kopis, the falcata, and the machera, was used quite successfully in Europe for several hundred years between about 300 BC to about 200 AD. It is very probably the weapon that caused the reinforcement of the brow on the Roman helmet.