Kaskara with gold and silver decoration

[Ian]

I posted this one a few years ago during COVID and promised more pictures. One of my sons grabbed it, and said "mine" before I could get some more pictures. I finally retrieved it from him.

Here are pictures of the sword, and of the NSW colonial force being farewelled before embarking on their ship transport at Circular Quay in Sydney. They wore red tunics and white helmets, which they quickly swapped for more appropriate attire on arriving in Sudan. This is the crowd watching the boys march along Circular Quay. The crowd was estimated at 100,000 (a huge number considering the population of Sydney at that time was about 700,000).



And here are more pictures of the sword. I think this blade is of local manufacture rather than Persian. The silver decorations of vegetation and birds are tarnished and somewhat difficult to photograph against the very dark blade. I can provide more pictures at higher magnification if you wish. The gold inscriptions are not very well done, again suggesting local work rather than Persian. If someone can translate these, I would be very grateful.















And here are the tags attached to the sword when it came, giving some of the history.