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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Belgium
Posts: 146
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My most recent takouba, a simple one but a blade with five fullers. A native made blade of good quality with a little flex; still quite sharp. Short narrow handle, oval pommel made of steel/iron, brass and copper. Length of blade : 847 mm, width at handle : 45 mm, oal : 985 mm. Comments are always welcome.
Best regards Marc |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Belgium
Posts: 146
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A lot of viewers but no comments. Probably not interesting enough, although five fullers you don't come across very often.
Best regards Marc |
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#3 | |
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Germany, Dortmund
Posts: 8,726
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I've had it many times that a post received a lot of views but got.no single comment for a long time. But the many views show that it's interesting but people don't know what they should comment on. I for my part like takoubas but know not enough about them to give a comment. What do you think about how old it is? Mid. 20th century with an older blade? Regards, Detlef |
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#4 |
Member
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 407
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Marc,
I have a kaskara with five fullers. A man at the Kassala sword market said in c.1983 that the smith who made it has seen another sword with five fullers and just wanted to see if he could make one as well. At least three other "fivers" kaskaras have surfaced on this Forum. My guess is that your takouba smith made it as an artistic/technical challenge with no other significance. Regards, Ed |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 1,614
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Perhaps the 5 fullers were a status thing, or just a smith's attempt to demonstrate his skills. But such takouba do exist, even if not common.
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#6 |
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 407
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Here's a section from my Kaskara paper on Fullers. I didn't include the pictured. The five fullered Kaskara is called the Suliman Mukamas.Don't know about anything related to Takoubas.
Quote: Cut & Pasted: Suliman Mukhammas • This type has five forged fullers of graduated lengths that extend about a third of the way down the blade and is not included in Clark’s topology.) Khamsa is the number “five” in Arabic. This is a rare blade form with only five examples having been revealed so far. Two have a Sun symbol at the end of the fullers. The sun does not appear to be a maker's mark, but it likely has some unknown symbolic meaning. The informant called these Suliman Mukhammas abu Shammish. (Shams is Sun in Arabic, Shammish may be some grammatical variation or I misunderstood the word.) None of the other examples have apparent maker's marks either. Images of three are linked below and the fifth has no image. • My sword has the five grooved Makhummas with a sun at the end. Made circa 1914 in Kassaka. (Figure 16, next page). • Lew's post on “Makhumas with Sun,” virtually identical to mine. http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showp...07&postcount=21 • RDGAC Comments on Kaskara #3 in Post #10 on the below thread that is a war trophy collected c. 1882 and shown in figs. 17 & 18 on the following page. http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11950 • Paolo's sword. See Post #1. http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15749 • Clement's sword that is decorated with silver inlays. See Post # 1. http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=23098 There was a rich discussion of Five-Fullered blades back in 2012 in which Lew’s and Paolo’s swords were reviewed. I won’t replough that land too much. However, since then I have looked up Mukhammas on the web and found on Wikipedia that: Mukhammas (Arabic ‘fivefold’) refers to a type of Persian or Urdu cinquain or pentastich with Sufi connections based on a pentameter and have five lines in each paragraph. More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhammas Native and Arabic poetry is a feature of Sudanese culture. But who would have thought that a special Kassala-made sword blade (5 channels are much more difficult to make than 3 fullers) would have a link to a Persian and Urdu (Muslim part of India) poetry form? There may be a prosaic explaination. Mukhammas may be just a grammatic feature of Arabic for Five = Khamsa, but I prefer the poetry connection. My Mukhumas was reportedly made circa 1914 by a Kassaka smith who supposedy said he saw another being made and decided to give it a try. The RDGAC example was recovered circa 1882, almost a generation before mine was made. This suggests that mine was at least a second generation example of the type. When and how did it originate, and what symbolic or other purpose prompted its fabrication? These blades were not made for the general market. Who were their clients? End quote. Ed |
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#7 | |
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Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Belgium
Posts: 146
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thanks for your response, the reason I show an object is to get the widest possible variety of these objects on this forum and with diverse response from members. My expertise regarding takouba's is not that great, when I come across a specimen the forum is a great source of information. To me this takouba is Touareg and the age is difficult to determine, probably 2nd half of 20th century. Best regards Marc |
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#8 |
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Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Belgium
Posts: 146
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Thanks everyone for the informative infomation, it was what I was hoping for.
Best regards Marc |
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#9 | |
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Germany, Dortmund
Posts: 8,726
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So I tried to help to get your thread running! ![]() Regards, Detlef |
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#10 |
Member
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Belgium
Posts: 146
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