Kaskara - Translation?

Jim McDougall · 6th December 2012, 11:04 PM

This is a very nice example of kaskara which in my opinion are likely from Sennar regions due to the Mamluk influences with use of thuluth, which is Arabic calligraphy used often as in these cases as decorative motif. The bordered panels here may be simply repititions of key phrases or possibly invocations, so may not be translatable (certain to be the case if Dom is not able to decipher).
There are examples of kaskara as shown in Briggs (1965) with this kind of thuluth on the triple fuller blades known as masri, and somehow classified by him as Hausa, but this seems of course incorrect.
The brass crossguards also seem a unique feature of the group of kaskara which seem to be forming a particular classification as noted, from Sennar regions and typically of Mahdist period into probably 1920s.

As always, I welcome other input as these are simply my own observations developed from research over time and especially formulated from discussions with Iain and Chris and thier tenacious work on these North African broadswords. Further research is ongoing, so I hope others will share examples from thier collections to continue our study.

All the best,
Jim

6th December 2012, 11:04 PM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,192	This is a very nice example of kaskara which in my opinion are likely from Sennar regions due to the Mamluk influences with use of thuluth, which is Arabic calligraphy used often as in these cases as decorative motif. The bordered panels here may be simply repititions of key phrases or possibly invocations, so may not be translatable (certain to be the case if Dom is not able to decipher). There are examples of kaskara as shown in Briggs (1965) with this kind of thuluth on the triple fuller blades known as masri, and somehow classified by him as Hausa, but this seems of course incorrect. The brass crossguards also seem a unique feature of the group of kaskara which seem to be forming a particular classification as noted, from Sennar regions and typically of Mahdist period into probably 1920s. As always, I welcome other input as these are simply my own observations developed from research over time and especially formulated from discussions with Iain and Chris and thier tenacious work on these North African broadswords. Further research is ongoing, so I hope others will share examples from thier collections to continue our study. All the best, Jim