Many thanks Dom, this is really a big help
Still some mysteries to solve here w.r.t. Khartoum and that date (as far as I know it did not exist in 1711), but this does certainly seem to lend weight to the idea of solider's momentos produced after Omdurman. At least I cannot think of any good reason so many of these blades would have been produced in Omdurman prior to the British victory there. If produced under the Mahdi for some commemorative reason I guess they would at the very least mention him. So post 1898, which also fits with the fact that so far no-one has yet produced a provenanced example prior to 1900 (unless someone out there knows better that is). This also explains why there are so many of these around (not just kaskaras but other blades with the same or very similar writing).
Pity about the tomb, just goes to show that all translations (except for Dom's of course), should be taken with a pince of salt
