The Manding sword, the Tuareg aljuinar and Omani curved kattara: Are they connected?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Iain

As my own website has been referenced I will respond. Firstly, the question asked has several flaws.

1. The takouba is not exclusive to the Tuareg

2. It does not originate with the Tuareg

3. Perhaps the most important point, it is disingenuous to conflate a sword associated with societal rank and swords which were not used for combat.

Associating swords with class position and restrictions on who can carry them is a practice found throughout the Medieval world. You cannot assume that a sword is not a combat weapon simply because it also serves as a symbol of rank. The same applies to the Manding swords and sabres.

To be clear, the takouba was a combat weapon, there is a multitude of sources for this including colonial accounts of its use. there are still occasional disputes between Fulani herders and farmers over land rights which see swords used.

The Manding sword form and takouba are only related in so far as they occasionally share trade blades.

I have already made clear in previously posts in this thread the nature and origin of curved blades in takouba mounts.

Just to touch on one last flawed assumption in this thread, lack of a guard has never precluded combat use, from the shashka to the Maciejowski choppers.

I never said anything about your 1.2. paragraphs...
The third point I made about 3; I rather think stands since I think it is precisely that; the Manding sword was not a war weapon but a badge of recognition, swagger and prestige... despite its European Cavalry Blade.

In your last paragraph the detail about the guard was not an assumption as it is clearly stated in the Pitt Rivers museum reference thus at worst can only be described as a guide... Open hilted swords are not all intended as weapons of war which is what my notes are centred upon... Certainly the Omani open hilt identical on the Sayf and the so called curved Kattarah were never intended as weapons. That has to be included since the Omani historical situation is tied to the question at thread opener.