European bladed takouba

Jim McDougall · 31st December 2011, 03:05 PM

I just wanted to add this from Dr. Lloyd Cabot Briggs (1965, "European Blades in Tuareg Swords and Daggers", JAAS Vol V, #2, pp.37-92):

"...northern Italy seems to have appeared as a new source of blades about the end of the 16th century or beginning of the 17th. The trade routes in this case ran probably from Tunis and perhaps Tripoli and Benghazi, southward across the desert via Ghadames and Ghat, or via Murzuk, and on through the Air to Katsina.
It looks as though the trade in North Italian blades was relatively short lived, but that may perhaps only be an illusion caused by the woeful insufficiency of our total example.
Germany seems to have remained priciple source of blades through Morocco southward into the desert from the 17th century into the 19th. "

The problem here is of course determining whether the blade is Italian or German, a difficult case since both sources used these marks and similar fuller patterns in period. It would seem with this analysis by Briggs that perhaps this blade, whether German or Italian, may have entered the Sahara via these routes entirely aside from the Mamluk venue I earlier suggested although that possibility remains plausible as well in my opinion.

31st December 2011, 03:05 PM	#18
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,899	I just wanted to add this from Dr. Lloyd Cabot Briggs (1965, "European Blades in Tuareg Swords and Daggers", JAAS Vol V, #2, pp.37-92): "...northern Italy seems to have appeared as a new source of blades about the end of the 16th century or beginning of the 17th. The trade routes in this case ran probably from Tunis and perhaps Tripoli and Benghazi, southward across the desert via Ghadames and Ghat, or via Murzuk, and on through the Air to Katsina. It looks as though the trade in North Italian blades was relatively short lived, but that may perhaps only be an illusion caused by the woeful insufficiency of our total example. Germany seems to have remained priciple source of blades through Morocco southward into the desert from the 17th century into the 19th. " The problem here is of course determining whether the blade is Italian or German, a difficult case since both sources used these marks and similar fuller patterns in period. It would seem with this analysis by Briggs that perhaps this blade, whether German or Italian, may have entered the Sahara via these routes entirely aside from the Mamluk venue I earlier suggested although that possibility remains plausible as well in my opinion.