Arabic Dagger? ID help please

[Badgerbag]

Hi, can anyone help ID this item please? My great grandfather brought it back from WW1. Family legend has it that he was fighting against the Ottoman army, but there’ is nobody left who remembers where. The hilt appears to be ivory, but I’ve no idea if it was a “genuine piece or something made for tourists. Can anyone tell if the inscriptions on the blade are merely decorative, or is some of it Arabic script.

Many thanks

[Battara]

This could be Madhist from around Sudan.

[Rick]

Welcome aboard!

The hilt is bone. There's a lot to be learned about these thuluth blades here:

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

[kahnjar1]

Hi Tim,
Please refer to the link in the reply above. I have just acquired 2 of these daggers with a Sudanese Kaskara sword. Replies to my thread would suggest that these COULD be made for sale rather than actual use, though opinions vary.
Either way they are of Sudanese origin.
Regards Stu

[Badgerbag]

Many thanks everyone. What a fascinating subject! I shall have to try to do some digging into my Great Grandfather’s war service. I always thought he looked a bit old to have fought in WW1, and I remember my grandmother told me that he had been recalled to the colours during the Boer War, so he could possibly have been in the Sudan.

[David R]

You thought your Great Granddad was a bit old for WW1 service, this is Sgt. Evan Jones of Rourke's Drift fame, in 1918.