Sudan Mahdist daggers

[Edster]

Iain/Colin,

I've done subsequent research on the origin of the Hadendowa soat'al and it seems that the 1916 attribution is apocryphal. I inquired to the British Badge Forum that showed a badge of the camel corps out of Eastern Sudan. See attached link to the link. Eddie Parks of the forum informed me that a very similar knife to the soat'al had been collected in 1882-83 by Juan Maria Schuver before his death in Sudan in 1883. Unfortunately, the link provided is no longer active. Perhaps others can penetrate the Schuver Collection in the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde ( National Ethnographic Museum) in Leiden for the image. Its very close in style to the lower knife Colin posted. Very likely the Mahdist period attribution is correct. Note that Colin's grip form is more Nile Valley as opposed to the more emerging "modern" style of Kassala suggested on Schuver's piece. Both blades are pretty much the same.
.
http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...ad.php?t=25756

Link about Schuver and his travels.

http://volkenkunde.nl/sites/default/...schuver_uk.pdf

Below is a scanned fuzzy image of the Schuver's 1882-83 collection piece.

Regards,
Ed

[Aleksey]

Originally Posted by Edster

Iain/Colin,

I've done subsequent research on the origin of the Hadendowa soat'al and it seems that the 1916 attribution is apocryphal. I inquired to the British Badge Forum that showed a badge of the camel corps out of Eastern Sudan. See attached link to the link. Eddie Parks of the forum informed me that a very similar knife to the soat'al had been collected in 1882-83 by Juan Maria Schuver before his death in Sudan in 1883. Unfortunately, the link provided is no longer active. Perhaps others can penetrate the Schuver Collection in the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde ( National Ethnographic Museum) in Leiden for the image. Its very close in style to the lower knife Colin posted. Very likely the Mahdist period attribution is correct. Note that Colin's grip form is more Nile Valley as opposed to the more emerging "modern" style of Kassala suggested on Schuver's piece. Both blades are pretty much the same.
.
http://www.britishbadgeforum.com/for...ad.php?t=25756

Link about Schuver and his travels.

http://volkenkunde.nl/sites/default/...schuver_uk.pdf

Below is a scanned fuzzy image of the Schuver's 1882-83 collection piece.

Regards,
Ed

Let me follow-up the thread!

As for me we need to pay attention to the fact that in Ge'ez (the anceint Semitic language used by Christian priests in Ethiopia for liturgy) the word "shotel" means simply "dagger".

Ethiopian scholar Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher (b. 1940) wrote:

To a more limited extent, the dagger (methaht or shotel) and javelin (armah) were also used, as reported for Yifat.(49) The dagger also features in the death of the important warrior, Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim El Ghazi, which was effected by an unnamed poor man in Shire, western Tigray. (50)

http://archive.unu.edu/unupress/unup...human%20rights

AFAIK no depiction of sickle-shaped shotel (sabre) is known before XIX century. The best one is among mural paintings of Ura Kidhane Mihret monastery (Tana Lake) - see the attachement.

In the midst of XVIII century (1751-1752) the Czech Franciscan monk named Remedius Prutky meant shotel several times in his notes about his travel in Ethiopia. But the word was used by him to describe a carving knife.

So I consulted with the scholar (specialist in Amharic and Ge'ez) in the St. Petersburg State University and he told that intially word shotel meant short knife or dagger as Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher said.

So could we assume that the word was wide spread across the region meaning the short hooked blade and only in Ethiopia this blade was transformed to the long sickle-shaped sabre? To be honest the Ethiopian-made shotel blades are not so hooked as European-made blades for shotel!

[Edster]

Hello Aleksey,

Thanks for your observation. We students of ethnographic weapons are often faced with similar language terms used to identify the same type of weapons or the same or similar terms to identify different ones. The dog-leg blade knife, regardless of its origin and development is known as the soat'al by the Hadendawa ethnic group who traditionally live in both modern Sudan and in Ethiopia. Informants at the sword market in Kassala told me that the name Soat'al is a Hadendawa word for liver. It is said that one slice with the knife will cut a man to his liver. The name is said to have originated when the knife was thrown at a lion and severed its liver in two parts. The "Arabic" term of reference is Shotal and is virtually identical to the name of the Abyssian sickle sword discussed above.

Regards,
Ed

[Aleksey]

Dear Ed,

We need to compare the actual Fuzzy-Wuzzy knives in XIX century and modern knives.

AFAIK they used straight knives in 1880th onwards.

Then we shood seek for such knives in Museums of Sudan and ajacent countries as European collections could boast only the itrems of the end of XIX century.

And at last we should understand what "shotel" means in Arabic language? Is it a word from classic Arabic language or is it being spread only among Sudanese Arabs?

The Fuzzi-Wuzzy legend seems to be very modern and ethimologistic - to my mind they borrowed the thing alongside with the name and them "explained" the meaning by so called foulk ethimology.

In any case I am glad to talk with you especially after getting acquainted with your notes about Kassala

P.S. could you post the emblem of E.A.C. here?

[Aleksey]

I am awfully sorry - I forgot the attachement!

So please find enclosed the mural painting from Ura Kidhane Mihret Monastery, Tana Lake, depicting the classic Ethiopian shotel: