Excellent points you guys!!! This is really great to be able to discuss these very complex areas of North African history, which is far underresearched with reference material very esoteric. Thank you Tim for sharing and highlighting these references on the Sokoto Caliphate, and it is interesting to see how colonialism and geopolitical matters had such dramatic impact.
Ispn, the reference to half moon markings are to the paired crescent moons as seen on takouba, usually at the base of the outside fullers in the center of the blade. There are indeed crescent moons on many kaskaras but they are the large man in the moon in the astral grouping with sun and star, in most of those I have seen. As noted the small paired crescent are indeed in some kaskara, as seen by the Briggs illustration, but uncommon as far as I know.
I believe the Hausa attribution in Briggs is based on the presumption that a great number of the smiths were Hausa.
The presence of thuluth was more attributed to Mamluk influence, which of course could have moved westward through trade as well as the slaving activity which the Mamluks were active in Sudan with. The takouba blade form is somewhat different in being somewhat lighter blades, and it is worthy of note that they invariably seem to have rounded tip. The kaskara blades have more of an angled spear type point typically.
The Bayajidda sword seems to have the wider at the shoulder and gradual parallel taper to the point. There are Sudanese short swords of this type in the northern regions near Dongola and similar variations. While Bivar tries to allude to much earlier period for the sword than it probably is, the likelihood of its provenance from the east still seems good.
I am of the impression that the Mahdist movement in the Sudan was quite an independant situation from the numerous instances of Jihad in many of the Caliphates and kingdoms to the west. Even considerable resistance to involvement was known in Darfur, where some tribal groups moved into remote regions avoiding contact. I read of this some time ago in I believe it was "Prisoners of the Mahdi" , Byron Farwell. As far as the thuluth type of script, I think we need to look further into the types of calligraphy that would have been used in Nigeria and West African regions, and try to find other examples of weapons from those regions with thuluth inscriptions. The Bayajidda sword is quite frankly, the only one I know of. If Mamluk influence was so prevalent in western Sudanese regions, I would expect to see this broad and distinct script on much of the material culture metalwork.
I really appreciate you guys discussing this with me here. It really helps to have input on ideas that I have formed from resources and things I have seen which may of course not be entirely correct. That is why it is so imortant to have other perspective, not so anyone can be more right than the other, but so we all gain knoeledge together. Thank you so much, and I hope others will join in as well.
All best regards,
Jim
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