Makers mark on 19th century 'star and comet' Kaskara blade

[jaxonrice]

Hi All

I was wondering if anyone might be able to identify a mark on the blade of a 19th century ‘star and comet’ kaskara. The mark appears in the photos below just beneath the quillon in these photos and seems to be in the fuller, consisting of vertical incisions with crosshatching, with either a circle or a crescent superimposed. I attach some photos here of the mark

The Kaskara itself was recovered by Captain FM Hext of the Royal Irish Fusiliers after the battle of Tamai in 1884. It features the same ‘star and comet” type silver engraved hilt and quillon as the very early kaskara that belonged to Nasir Mohamed, the Funj sultan from AD 1762 to 1769, and that is now in Sudan National. Museum.

The single fullered blade is 93cm and total length of the kaskara is 107cm. The blade seems to have seen quite a bit of use, though still retains its sharp edge 140 years later.

I will post more photos of the sword and sheath in a reply.

Thanks in advance for any feedback

[Edster]

Jaxon,

Your kaskara has the famous "enigmatic mark" of unknown origin and meaning. Several Forum posts deal with it, but this one is a summary.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...nigmatic+marks

Eager to see the rest of the sword.

Best,
Ed

[jaxonrice]

Hi Ed, thank you so much for the quick reply. The dimensions of the blade are exactly the same as an Austrian blade that you mentioned in another post.

Some more photos of the sword and accompanying sheath and sash...

[jaxonrice]

and some more....

[Edster]

Very nice sword and trophy. To put it in context, the battle was fought against Osman Digna and his Hadendawa warriors. (See Wiki attached). The gap at the top of the silver grip cover originally likely had the signature Hadendawa tassel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle...l%20population.

Ed

[jaxonrice]

Thank you so much Ed. Would you be able to hazard a guess as to the age and origin of the blade?

[Edster]

During the early-mid 19th C. thousands of mostly German blades were imported into Egypt and rest of N. Africa. Traders brought them into Sudan. I documented some of the traffic into Sudan in one of my kaskara papers available on the Forum's Geographical Index.

Ed

[Marc M.]

Indeed a very nice kaskara.
Regards
Marc

[jaxonrice]

Thank you Ed. I have, of course, read all of your excellent Kaskara papers here

[G. Mansfield]

Hello Jaxon,

I do not have any new information on the enigmatic mark but I wanted to congratulate you on this exceptional kaskara sword. Attached are two other war trophies picked up by Francis Marwood Hext from the same battle. Estimates of between 2,000 and 4,000 Mahdists were killed or wounded, most of which were Hadendowa tribesmen.

https://www.the-mansfield-collection...-beja-hext-413
https://www.the-mansfield-collection...agger-hext-412


-Geoffrey

[Jim McDougall]

I think the discussion from 2022 that Ed has linked in his post #2 has the most comprehensive answer to this question. What is interesting is this 'enigma' marking has remained a conundrum despite the number of compelling theories.

Briggs has noted these stylized marks on the swords of two Taureg chiefs in Air which were taken during the Kaocen Rebellion 1917. While these tribes (I think Tiouinfera was one) seem to have been of the Maliki School of Sunni Islam, which was why I had earlier thought perhaps the stylized devices might be related to symbols in that context.

Im not familiar with the 18th c kaskara of the Funj sultan and this type of hilt so am curious to see images of it and the star and comet. Could you direct to a source for images? It would be great to see 18th century examples of this type of kaskara hilt.

The 'enigma' mark on the blade seems to have been seen as early as 1878 with Adembar sword from Air (I believe this was from J.Gabus, 1958, as per Briggs, 1965). How it became known on kaskara in Darfur and Sudan from what may be Tuareg origins in that light is a question, or was it vice versa, from Sudan to Air?

[Edster]

Jim,

The image of the so-called 1762 Funj sword (fig.6) and my comment from p.7 of my Kaskara Cross-guards paper.

Quote:
Another example of the exaggerated flared lozenge is the Nasir Mohammad Funj-era sword, now in the
Sudanese National Museum in Khartoum. It has been dated to 1762. It has a forged iron sammaniya quillon,
like the Ali Dinar examples, but has a star and comet silver grip cover similar to examples brought back to
England from the 1899 war. The Nasir blade could well be 18th century, but the grip end appears to be much
later (see fig. 6 of the unrestored grip end.) End quote

Here is another image of the sword with bad color>
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...NCAM_KH394.jpg

Plates 2, 3 & 4 of Julie Anderson's article on Forum's Geo. Index show marking details of Nair's sword consistent with 18th C. imported blades

http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/...rson_et_al.pdf

Best,
Ed

[Jim McDougall]

Ed,Thank you so much for this added detail, which brings so much more perspective to this dilemma, The article by Ms.Anderson is comprehensively outstanding, and thoroughly informative as augmented by the many important details extracted from your remarkable work on these topics.

In looking at the 'Funj' sword discussed, as noted it would seem that this is indeed an imported blade, most likely of course German. While many references seem to include Toledo and Italy as sources for blades, this in my opinion is hardly the case. Toledo had only resumed production of blades in the latter 18th century after its demise by the latter 17th and the minor centers in Spain were limited in production. Italy, while still producing blades, again was not exporting in any notable volume.
Solingen, and some other centers in S.Germany and Styria were the more likely blade sources.
In some references the double head eagle device (Austro-Hungarian) is noted on blades, of course along with the 'sickles' which while associated with Solingen, were well known in Styria. It is tempting to wonder if Slatin (the Austrian official in Darfur) might have facilitated importing blades from those sources.

It seems likely that the hilt, notably comparable to others of the Mahdist period, might have been added to an earlier blade as virtually regularly done.

With markings, while typically assumed to be regarded as inherent representations implying quality, it seems to me that in native perspective, these were more ofen seen as talismanic symbols imbuing magic in the blade.

It is known that the Mahdi was seen as possessing great magic, naturally through the religious prism rather in the Sufi sense. In studying the heavily etched blades of the Mahdiyya with thuluth inscriptions, these were often seen as unintelligible decoration, it is now known that these were repeated words and phrases from the Quran, often with invocations. These were meant to imbue the weapon with the Magic of the Mahdi.
This same concept is of course applied to many of these important Islamic swords, as discussed with those of Ali Dinar.

Many of the other interpreted European markings have simpler applied meanings such as the 'fly' used by Kull in Germany. In native parlance, the fly (duran) represented the agility of a warrior (jumps and aversive leaps are key in native swordsmanship).
The cross and orb were seen as drum and sticks, authoritative items in tribal parlance for leaders or officials.

In other cases, it seems when I was going through MacMichael ("Brands Used by Camel Owning Tribes of Kordofan", 1913) there was some reference for the potential of ancient Egyptian heiroglyphics having some iconic link to devices used in brands. Clearly more research there might prove interesting.

The fascination in these topics is compelling!


Correction: I thought is was MacMichael on the camel brands, but it was Arkell, "Tribes of the Sahara".
"...there are cattle brands connected with Darfur's earliest sultans, the Daju, that still survive in Darsila and can only be explained as having been originally Egyptian heiroglyphics". p.236.

This does not seem unlikely as the atavistic styling of a number of ancient forms of weapon and various other elements from Egypt have remained prevalent in Darfur, Sudan and other African kingdoms reflecting the Egyptian roots of many tribes.

Onward!

[jaxonrice]

@geoffrey Congratulations on your great purchases, I was wondering who got the other lots at the auction.

Thank you Ed and Jim for the very useful and insightful discussion, much appreciated indeed