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#1 |
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 2,145
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Hi guys,
I got an interesting takouba, some features are close to kaskara and I place this takouba close to Sudan, may be in Chad. http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...8&postcount=31 The sword was stuck in the scabbard, in very bad condition, I got a good suprise when I managed to have access to the blade. I will be grateful for your comments and Kiwatek for translation. I will post later details of the sword, dress, belt... clearly the sword of someone important... Kubur Last edited by Kubur; 12th July 2021 at 09:32 PM. Reason: pics |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 2,145
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The inscriptions, different on both sides
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#3 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 1,614
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Kubur,
Congratulations, what a spectacular sword. It is indeed very similar to the one in Hales' book. The scabbard fittings and the hilt construction are like a takouba, while the blade is more like something one would expect to find on a nice, older kaskara. Therefore a Kanem Bornu or Wadai attribution seems reasonable. It will be interesting to see kwiatek's translation as it may hold the key. Teodor |
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#4 |
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,068
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A very nice piece indeed.
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#5 |
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Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 153
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Nice inscription too. They are Arabic verses from al-Busiri‘s Qasidat al-Burda (Ode of the Mantle), which are common on kaskaras
SIDE A ومن تكن برسول الله نصرته إن تلقه الأسد فى آجامها تجم “Whoever is assisted by God's Messenger, The lion on meeting him in its wood lies down meekly” SIDE B ولن ترى من ولي غير منتصر به ولا من عدو غير منقصم “And you shall see no friend (of God) but he who is assisted, And you shall see no enemy but he who is crushed” |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Austria
Posts: 1,903
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Wow! Very nice find!
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#7 |
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 1,430
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A most interesting find ... well done and thanks for posting.
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#8 |
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Olomouc
Posts: 1,693
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I was curious if someone here would pick it up. It is indeed an interesting one, however I don't really see Kanem-Bornu, rather the hilt design is quite similar to some Yemeni designs, although made in the construction method of a takouba.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7895 |
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#9 |
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 1,068
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The sword is classic Old Arabian of a style seen since the the 10th C. at least, it's the scabbard that is Takouba like. The inscription is beautifully inscribed, I think this is probably an important sword.
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#10 | |
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 2,145
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![]() Quote:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...8&postcount=31 |
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#11 | |
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 2,145
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![]() Quote:
Then the sword lost her guard so it reinforces the similarity with a Yemeni sword but it is just because the guard is missing... I know that the sword doesn't fit in "specialised collectors" boxes, so I called it a takouskara. ![]() Please look at the scabbard too. |
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#12 | |
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Olomouc
Posts: 1,693
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![]() Quote:
![]() The scabbard is perhaps not original to the sword. The chape is Hausa work. The sword is not missing the entire guard rather the sheet metal structure remains but the decorated guard plates are missing. As I said this is made in the normal manner for a takouba, but the decorative elements on the grip and pommel are closer to the style seen in Yemen. That's not saying the work is Yemeni ![]() This one appears to my eye to have travelled widely and most likely was collected in modern day Nigeria where at the time it was in a Hausa made scabbard. Foreign swords are not unusual in a Hausa context with many state weapons of local Emirates coming from various locales including Ottoman blades, thuluth blade from Sudan etc. The place of manufacture of the hilt was likely not within the usually encountered centers in Hausa states or in a Bornu or Tuareg context. |
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#13 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Bay Area
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Based on the existence of another very similar published sword, we can conclude that this is not a one off creation, but rather a type that existed somewhere in the Sahel in the 19th century. Hales pictured his sword in a group of kaskaras, probably because of the blade, and so both of the swords we know like this have kaskara blades.
The style of the chape is Hausa, but it was not limited to just the Hausa states, as we see it on takoubas and telek daggers all the way from Bida to Adamawa and what is Northern Cameroon today. I have a similar chape on a wide bladed takouba, which I posted for comparison to other Northern Cameroon swords in this thread: https://vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=24269 Adamawa and the Mandara Mountains are not that far from Lake Chad, and the area was part of Kanem Bornu at various times, with very strong Kanuri influence even after the Fulani jihad. I am not trying to prove that the sword itself is Kanuri, just pointing out that it did not need to travel all the way to Kano to get its current scabbard. The hilt has the construction of takouba hilts rather than kaskara ones, but the choice of material is also important. Silver is almost never found on takouba hilts and very common on kaskaras, as Ed Hunley has demonstrated. It appears therefore that these swords are the result of mixed influence, and therefore most likely from an area where takoubas and kaskaras were both used to some extent. |
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