Sword - Kaskara? - Comments please.

[Jim McDougall]

Nice example Longfellow! and as David has well noted, the notion that kaskaras were typically carrying blades from the crusades is possibly key in the note on the string tag, as it is a quite old 'chestnut' perhaps indicating this one is from a very old collection.
It is known that some old European blades did indeed often occur on kaskaras but those as far as I have known were quite rare and those blades disappeared into collections back in the 19th century. More modern European blades exported into North Africa during the 19th century and even in degree into the early 20th were well known.

This blade appears to be a native made product of the triple fuller type which was seen throughout trade routes linking Sudanese and often Saharan regions and is possibly of the period around 1890s or more likely into the pre WWI period. The hilt characterizes style associated most with Darfur with the lozenge pattern silverwork and discoid pommel.
Swords of this form became produced in more modern times around 1960s in Kasalla, but I think this is an early example from pre WWI, possibly as late as 1920s. Is the string tag note an old one?