African Sword for ID and comment

Jim McDougall · 9th December 2012, 07:24 PM

As I mentioned in post #3, paragraph 3, these hilts seem represented in some quite vast regional instances. I think the collectively used 'Hausa' classification may be misconstrued just as we have discussed on occasion regarding that classification as used in Briggs with the example of kaskara he has grouped in the takouba article. The Hausa, as Iain has shown on numerous occasions, were a keenly mercantile tribe and while they may have carried many of these weapons in thier wares it does not mean they necessarily used them as traditional arms.

Also as explained earlier (in #3) these swords are from Dongola (which astutely observed by Lew, is indeed in the White Nile regions, in fact on the banks) and are shown in collections and references as such, with the crocodile motif. This motif undoubtedly travelled the trans Saharan routes into Mali, where the familiar flared scabbard tip is seen on Manding sabres scabbards as well, so are another example of this westward diffusion.

9th December 2012, 07:24 PM	#12
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,192	As I mentioned in post #3, paragraph 3, these hilts seem represented in some quite vast regional instances. I think the collectively used 'Hausa' classification may be misconstrued just as we have discussed on occasion regarding that classification as used in Briggs with the example of kaskara he has grouped in the takouba article. The Hausa, as Iain has shown on numerous occasions, were a keenly mercantile tribe and while they may have carried many of these weapons in thier wares it does not mean they necessarily used them as traditional arms. Also as explained earlier (in #3) these swords are from Dongola (which astutely observed by Lew, is indeed in the White Nile regions, in fact on the banks) and are shown in collections and references as such, with the crocodile motif. This motif undoubtedly travelled the trans Saharan routes into Mali, where the familiar flared scabbard tip is seen on Manding sabres scabbards as well, so are another example of this westward diffusion.