Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim Simmons
The background script seems to be a repeated version of, The Conqueror, Salvation unto him.
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Thank you Tim! This thing seems of course much too broad a blade to be effective at thrusting as with the spear or lance heads. We know that at the beginning of the Khalifa, there were many conscripted forces from tribes to south who had been formerly taken as slaves.
These forces brought of course many external weapon forms, and these were often acid etched with the thuluth script as on the kaskaras, presumably all done in the Omdurman arsenal shops. The concept was the same, all of this scribed phrasing and invocations were the words of the jihad.
Muhammed Ahmed, born in Dongola, was a Sufi, of the Sammaniya Order, and declared he was the Mahdi, the chosen one in around 1880.
In the developing campaigns to end the hated Turkiyya (Ottoman rule) the British sent Gen. Charles Gordon to stabilize the situation. This ended with the seige and fall of Khartoum, where Gordon was killed by the spear of a zealous tribesman, to the dismay of the the Mahdi.
Ironically, the Mahdi died the same year of illness, which much threatened the jihad. His successor, the Khaliph, to keep the jihad going, used the much emphasized thuluth script to embellish the weapons as imbued with the magic of the Mahdi (known for his use of written script amulets). this was to assure the 'Ansar' of the angels who would come with them into battle , not for protection but to ensure their flight to paradise if killed.
Obviously, while familiar with these elements of this history, I am by no means well versed in the dynamics and particulars of the language, script nor beliefs. However I hope others will come in, and Tim again thank you for the entry.
The illustration of the Mahdi, the only such rendering known and only presumed appearance by artist.
The painting is "General Gordons Last Stand" by George W. Joy (1893).. just 5 years before the punitive expedition led by Kitchener ending with Omdurman in 1898.