Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Rumpel · 7th August 2009, 10:18 AM

Hi all- I'm a long-time lurker, but actually registered specifically to post on this thread...

As Jim McDougall said, the Fur sultans, and particularly Ali Dinar, spring to mind.

At university, I was fortunate enough to handle (longingly!) Ali Dinar's ceremonial kaskara, which an alumnus had taken back as loot in 1916. An exceptionally poor image of it can be found on p37 of this brochure: http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/unive...tyBrochure.pdf

You can just make out the interlinking-diamond-shaped pattern beaten into the silver/silver alloy of the handle. While there are differences- cross guards and pommel especially- a tentative attribution of Katana's kaskara to Ali Dinar's court and era seems reasonable.

The Solingen blade is interesting, as Ali Dinar’s effects also included an Austrian (that is, K&K stamped) pistol, reworked by, presumably, a local silversmith. Evidently, there was a working trade route for high-status weapons between the WW1 Triple Alliance and Ali Dinar’s court.

It might be worth contacting the Sudan Archive at Durham, by the way. They sell photo reproductions of many of the images in the collection, and of photos taken in 1916. Imagine if one of them showed a grinning squaddie brandishing a familiar-looking souvenir...

7th August 2009, 10:18 AM	#22
Rumpel Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 63	Hi all- I'm a long-time lurker, but actually registered specifically to post on this thread... As Jim McDougall said, the Fur sultans, and particularly Ali Dinar, spring to mind. At university, I was fortunate enough to handle (longingly!) Ali Dinar's ceremonial kaskara, which an alumnus had taken back as loot in 1916. An exceptionally poor image of it can be found on p37 of this brochure: http://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/unive...tyBrochure.pdf You can just make out the interlinking-diamond-shaped pattern beaten into the silver/silver alloy of the handle. While there are differences- cross guards and pommel especially- a tentative attribution of Katana's kaskara to Ali Dinar's court and era seems reasonable. The Solingen blade is interesting, as Ali Dinar’s effects also included an Austrian (that is, K&K stamped) pistol, reworked by, presumably, a local silversmith. Evidently, there was a working trade route for high-status weapons between the WW1 Triple Alliance and Ali Dinar’s court. It might be worth contacting the Sudan Archive at Durham, by the way. They sell photo reproductions of many of the images in the collection, and of photos taken in 1916. Imagine if one of them showed a grinning squaddie brandishing a familiar-looking souvenir... Last edited by Rumpel; 7th August 2009 at 12:53 PM.