Esbat

Esbat, n. Moorish. A straight sword.

The iconic Arab sword is the scimitar: long, single-edged, and backswept - and not an Arab sword. IRL, it was first adopted in Khorasan, the far side of the umma from al-Andalus; it was brought west in the Turkic migrations, where the Seljuks (and the Byzantines, who'd already adopted the single-edge as a cavalry weapon) first wielded it against the Crusaders. Progressive Turkish immigration Arabized and assimilated, and the single-edged sword displaced the straight-bladed weapons that had come before.

Everywhere, that is, except in Seville. al-Andalus was in a lot of ways a living fossil of Islamic culture; if Osprey is any indicator, that extended to sword architecture too. In Andalusada, where the Moorish world is happily spared the waves of Turkish immigration, the double-edged sword is not replaced. As time goes on, and Seville's economy shifts progressively into the western Mediterranean, the non-Arabic influence on sword design in Toledo (and, thus, the Moorish world) come from the Aragonese Empire, Sicily, and the various Italies.

What this evolves into is the iconic sword of the Moorish world: the esbat.

The esbat as a rapier

In the east, the major opponent of the Muslim world was Constantinople, which as time progressed convergently evolved with Muslim doctrine and tactics themselves in the form of the turcopoles. Out west, though, Seville faces various Iberian (and, more than that, French) forces, which do not converge with them. In fact, as armor gets heavier and the knight evolves as per IRL, they start facing problems that the Levant never does.

Accordingly, swords evolve to handle these problems. One of them is a shift from the cutting edge to the thrust, which changes blade structures, hilting, and so forth. When the sword starts clearly turning from the edge to the point, Arabic (by now "Moorish") historiography mostly abandons the term saif to describe the new weapons, Arabizing the Romance names as asbat.

The esbat today

As a military weapon, the esbat is no longer quite as important in the blackpowder era - but (because Rule of Cool) it's still not only issued but used. The UCNA, in particular, makes a point of issuing it to both field officers and higher-ranking NCOs in the infantry units (the mostly-Cuban Navy has always favored more cutty swords, and cavalry is usually issued with sabers as a concession to practicality); the gifting of blades is an important part of Andalusian ceremonial, going back to Yusuf I as a form of taking baya from his diverse (and heavily Montagnard) officer corps.

As a civilian weapon, though, the esbat sees a lot of use. When you're from a good enough family, the ban on dueling is either flatly ignored or can be handled with bribes - matters of honor, especially family honor, are properly resolved with esbats. (That this wasn't actually the way things were done in the Old Country is no defense.) Esbatiyya is an all-important part of a "classical" Moorish education, and open carry of an esbat is much more acceptable than, say, openly carrying a gun.

Famous esbats of history

• The Miramoline had an iconic esbat, which she named Matamiga. It survives to the present day.
  

This is and remains a work in progress. Expect it to be expanded upon.