[Iain]

Hi Jim,

Maybe I've only been looking at the unusual ones... But I've seen the half moon marks on quite a few kaskara. Just a few examples I quickly turned up online (note for moderators: the links to auction sites are all for expired auctions, nothing active).

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6221477

http://www.thomasdelmar.com/catalogu...1205/lot27.jpg

http://www.oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=109

http://www.oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=3436

http://www.oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=4018

Now, one thing I notice is all the blades I turned up with the half moons on kaskara are the triple fullered variety more similar to takouba blades - this could support the idea that perhaps there a Hausa connection to these examples? Maybe an easy way to differentiate between the Darfur examples? I really haven't handled enough kaskara to do more than just throw it out as a thought.

About other blades exhibiting thuluth script... Oddly I stumbled yesterday across a record in the American Museum of Natural History collections for a kaskara attributed as Tuareg with thuluth. THe attribution is directly in the collection notes, very odd.

http://anthro.amnh.org/anthropology/...from_anthro=no

I would probably discount this attribution entirely, but thought it was an oddity worth bringing up as the attribution is from the collector not the museum mislabeling at a later date.

The profiles of kaskaras and takoubas... Unfortunately this rather complex even from my own brief experiences. Takouba blades are generally lighter, but come in a wide variety of profiles and are not always rounded at the tip - personally I have a couple with sharp tips. I'm not familiar with the Sudanese short swords you referenced but that's probably not entirely surprising as your own experience is quite a bit larger!

My major "beef" with the Bayajidda sword is that it simply makes no sense to me. I was also under the impression that the script used in amongst the Fulani, Hausa and Turaeg was Maghribi. With the sub forms being Saharan, Suqi and Sudani. My reference for this is mainly reading articles about the manuscripts known from Timbuktu.

However one article I found on Arabic literary tradition of West Africa had this to say:

In the 19th century, the connections between Muslim scholars of the western Sudan (Futa, Mali, Masina, etc.) and those of the central Sudan (Hausaland, Bornu, Adamawa) intensified. These networks encouraged circulation of the political enthusiasm conveyed by the successful experience of the Sokoto Caliphate of the Fodios; the doctrinal renewal conveyed by the Sufi turuq; and the anxieties, joined with millennial beliefs, created by the news of the coming wave of European conquests. In 1825 and 1837, Sokoto was visited by a Fulani scholar from Futa Jallon, al-Hajj ‘Umar, on his way to and from Mecca. Back in the western Sudan, al-Hajj ‘Umar rallied an army and launched a jihad that would lead him to confront both local kingdoms and the rising French colonial power. An important effect of al-Hajj ‘Umar’s campaigns was that they contributed to the spread of small Tijani communities throughout the region—these would later develop into the most active religious networks of the 20th century in most of West Africa.

http://digital.library.northwestern....istorical.html

So I would say that the style of the script is not impossible for West Africa given the interaction between scholars of Sudan and West Africa. I still find it strange that it is hard to find other takouba with script on the blades. Or simply kaskara with takouba hilts.... Well wait a sec I just remembered one.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...0&postcount=26

So that's two at least.

Cheers,

Iain