Shotel

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Shotel
Shotel on display in the British Museum
Information
Weapon type: sword
Use: Weapon, status symbol
Distribution: Ethiopia
Blade length: approx. 90 cm to 120 cm
Lists on the subject
A noble Tigre
Dejazmach Hailu, the governor of Hamasia , late 19th century

The Shotel is a sword from Abyssinia ( Ethiopia ).

description

The shotel has an unusually curved blade . It is about 90 to 120 cm long and has the shape of a large sickle . In contrast to the saber, the blade has a cutting edge on both the inside and outside . The blade begins to curve a few centimeters after the handle. The blade width is about 2.5 cm at the handle and gradually decreases towards the tip.

Large horn of rhino or wood existing handles wide at both ends and have an oval cross-section. The pommel of the handle is often decorated; sometimes a Maria Theresa thaler is used for this purpose . The sheaths are made of red tanned leather and are sometimes decorated with velvet and metal ribbons. Some scabbards also have a decorated ball attached to the outermost tip. The handle and scabbard resemble those of a gurade , the Ethiopian saber.

use

The main traditional weapon of the Ethiopian infantry and cavalry was the spear . Swords like the shotel were mainly worn by officers as a badge of rank or by rich or successful fighters as a status symbol . Unlike European swords, swords were usually worn on the right side. The reason for this was probably that the large shields carried on the left arm would prevent the sword from being pulled out of its scabbard.

The early European authors like Richard Francis Burton did not have a high opinion of the weapon and described it as unwieldy and denied the Abyssinians the art of fencing. Even George Cameron Stone and Nick Evangelista comment disparagingly similar reasons.

The way of fighting with the shotel is fundamentally different from that with a saber, because the shotel is held the other way round. With the outwardly curved blade neither can stab or slash still cutting perform. The weapon was used to hit the enemy behind a shield with a hook movement .

The Iberian Falcata and Nepalese Khukuri have a blade that is curved in the same direction at the base, but are nowhere near the length and curvature of the shotel.

history

The history of the Shotel has only been scientifically examined in fragments.

According to Christopher Spring , the name Shotel was first mentioned in the book by Nathaniel Pearce published in 1831 . He lived in the province of Tigray from 1805 to 1818 . William Cornwallis Harris , who stayed in Shewa Province from 1841-1843 , mentioned crescent-shaped knives and swords in 1844. Mansfield Parkyns , who traveled to Abyssinia from 1843-1846, also described the fighting style in 1853. The shotels were produced until the 20th century.

There are various theories about the origin and development of the Shotel. Richard Francis Burton was convinced in 1884 that the Shotel descended from the ancient Egyptian Khopesh . Henry Swainson Cowper contradicted this in 1906, however, because the cutting edge of the Khopesch is on the outer side of the blade. Cowper also mentions the possibility that the origin could be the throwing wood whose shape was made in iron. For Cowper, it is most likely that the weapon came from an agricultural sickle that turned into a weapon through times of war. Cowper also makes the connection to similar weapons in Nubia as well as the Central African sickle weapons . David Nicolle suspects in 1981 that Shotel probably did not develop before the 16th century. He suspects that it is more due to trade connections or fashion developments in neighboring Islamic countries than to an in-house development.

Web links

Commons : Shotel  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Christopher Spring : African arms and armor , 1993, ISBN 978-0-7141-2508-4 , pp. 98-99
  2. ^ A b Henry Swainson Cowper : The Art of Attack and the Development of Weapons: from the Earliest Times to the Age of Gunpowder , 1906, pp. 139-144
  3. ↑ a b c Richard Francis Burton : The Book of the Sword: A History of Daggers, Sabers, and Scimitars from Ancient Times to the Modern Day , 1884, pp. 163-164
  4. ↑ George Cameron Stone : Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times , 1934, pp. 562-563
  5. ^ Nick Evangelista : The Encyclopedia of the Sword , Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995, ISBN 9780313278969 , p. 542
  6. ↑ Hank Reinhardt : There Is No “Best Sword”
  7. ^ Hank Reinhard: The book of swords , Baen Publishing Enterprises, 2009, ISBN 9781618247339 , p. 14
  8. ^ Nathaniel Pearce : The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce , Volume 1, London, 1831, p. 57
  9. ^ William Cornwallis Harris : Highlands of Ethiopia, a Narrative of a Mission to the Kingdom of Shoa , 1844, pp. 275, 310
  10. ↑ Mansfield Parkyns : Life in Abyssinia: being notes collected during three years' residence and travels in that country , 1853, pp. 18-20
  11. ^ David Nicolle : Islamische Waffen , Verlag für Collectors, 1981, ISBN 978-3-85365-049-3 , p. 35