Sudanese ceremonial type kaskara

[Jack Fletcher]

Good Afternoon All

My next offering to the group.

This example has a brass cast cross guard, crocodile skin handle with part of the claw still present thats stitched on and a 24inch blade. The blade although faded is etched either ornate Islamic writing or patterning on both sides of the blade. Its made from a flexible metal and so is definitely an ornamental/ symbolic type kaskara.

Again im unsure of the age or even if its a tourist piece but i do like it.

All comments welcome

[kronckew]

Bling Short sword (infantry?) version. Possibly used by an elite Mahdist 'Officer' or 'Noble' who would wave it and extort his cannon fodder to charge the Brits in their quest for Paradise, while he stayed well back in order to have a chance of fleeing. Does yours stay bent after flexing?

'Springy' metal is a good thing. Really stiff usually means fracture if it snaps, Bendy, as in not returning to straight after flex, is not quite as bad, as you can field straighten it. Many European trade blades meant for combat are springy. Local made blades can be less so. 'Islamic' writings on blades in Arabic can be unintelligible gobbldy-gook, many were done by illiterate workers. Better ones have Koranic verses. Is yours sharp?

I have a similar short locally made version with crescent moon stamps sans script, iron guard, it is sharp and useable as a weapon. A favourite.

[Edster]

Jack,

This type kaskara with the Thuluth etching on the blade and the cast copper alloy crossguard is a fairly common thread on the Forum. Jim is the resident expert on the subject. Search on Thuluth Kaskara for excellent discussions. The first thread plus one from 2010 have much information if little conclusions re Sudan.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=26896
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=12225

Sometimes I think these swords were made in Omdurman at the close of the Mahdiya and at others made in Egypt and exported to Sudan again toward the end. No real objective reason to believe that either is correct.

Regards,
Ed

[TVV]

Personally, when I see these I tend to lean to the Victorian times souvenir hypothesis. The victory of Omdurman was well publicized at the time, and the abundance of trophies brought back soon created a market for souvenirs from the the defeated Mahdists. The locals were more than willing to meet this demand and I suspect that a souvenir industry appeared as a result, with some of the fancy 3-dagger sets with antelope horn hilts and scabbards made of juvenile crocodiles that we see every once in a while as part of the production.
When one examines the sword, which looks like it has a short blade made of sheet steel with no distal taper, it would appear that more effort went into etching the script on the blade than the blade's actual forging (if it was actually forged and not just cut out). The rough cast brass hilt is also something that was mass produced, and the crocodile skin (in other examples monitor lizard skin is used) is there to make the whole thing more exotic and aesthetically appealing to a Western audience.
While not actual militaria from the time of the Mahdists, these swords are antiques in their own right and an interesting example of the impact the Mahdists had on Western imagination, even after their destruction.

[David R]

One of my first swords was one of these, covered in Thuluth, cast brass guard and a bare wood replacement grip. It had a good springy blade, possibly trade. multiple fullers and a distal taper, also half moon stamps.
Sold it years ago, like so many others that I bought over the years.

[Jim McDougall]

I did quite a bit of research on these a few years back working with an anthropology professor writing a paper on African religions and metalwork. It used to be held that this 'thuluth' script on these blades was unintelligible etc.
As it turns out, these inscriptions were actual phrases and passages from the Quran used in repetitive manner as a kind of Arabesque motif, but often interlaced with Mahdist invocations.

These were apparently commissioned by the Caliph after the death of the Mahdi in 1885, and key to establish legitimacy and fervor to the continuation of the jihad. There was a great deal of attention to the 'Sword of the Mahdi', and in effect, swords emblazoned with the 'magic' of the Mahdi became in effect 'his' sword. Large numbers of kaskara as well as other weapons were etched with this script to be given to chieftains and holy men, and the field at Omdurman was well strewn with these weapons.

The Mahdiya did not end instantly with Omdurman, and in fact followers persisted for some time. There were remarkable numbers of these recovered at Omdurman and the years just after.

I do not believe these were 'artificially' created souvenirs, but either items actually recovered in the campaign period or slightly after. There were souvenir items created as suggested, but mostly spear heads and the like.

This is one I've had for over 40 years and from a reliable source. The brass guard is apparently a characteristic of the Omdurman produced examples of these.

[Edster]

Thanks, Jim for adding your expertise. Based on your comments I suggest that available examples here and on other Forum posts indicates there are two kinds of Mahdiya era thuluth swords with different characteristics.

1. The legit weapons like yours with forged and fullered blades, well formed cast bronze cross-guards and leather wrapped grips. Likely carried by the Khalifa's commanders of lesser military units. Most high ranking emirs had full fledged kaskaras with silver dress, but without thuluth.

2. Derivative examples like Jack's with shorter sheet metal blades, no fullers, derivative cast bronze cross-guards and croc covered grips and often scabbards. These likely were made in Omdurman as well, but in volume and distributed during the Mahdiya and continued after the 1899 Re-Conquest as souvenirs.

Regards,
Ed