Mahdi Spear Head?

[Jim McDougall]

These are outstanding acquisitions Fenris! and they are indeed Mahdist associated spears, as has been mentioned. You are right that the Mahdist forces were highly comprehensive, with members from many regions that included the south, west and Nuba mountains. Interestingly many of the Sudanese spears had shafts of bamboo which came from the Nuba Mountains.
The battalion sized units that comprised these components of the vast forces were termed 'rubs'. The warriors among these forces were referred by the Mahdi as 'Ansar' (= helper, as described in Koran as disciples of the Prophet), while the British applied the term 'Dervish' taken from religious mystics they had encountered in the Levant.


In the exhibition of Sudanese material in Austria in Nov,2001- Oct 2002 (Lenz & Schallaburg) Tim Kendall described some of these barbed spears as having a variety of points or viscious flesh tearing barbs or a combination of the two and that these were designed to be hurled at close range.

Many of the longer stabbing spears had very wide leaf shaped points, which also caused horrific wounds. There are also extremely large points which are actually excessive for actual stabbing, which are typically highly decorated with inscriptions and motif and are termed 'alem' .These I am told were actually used as standards to rally forces during battle, as they were so large as to be seen when held up as focal point.

Very nice spears you got, but I'd hate to be on the wrong end of one of 'em
All the best,
Jim