Sorry to have taken so long to respond, but I wanted to see if anyone out there would 'pick up the gauntlet' as it were!!
It is an excellent topic and Im glad to see it posted.
There are two concurrent threads which correspond nicely, the very nice example of a 20th century Darfur type which Lew posted, which has the interesting 'lohr' type panel and crescent motif; and the well provenanced example posted by RDGAC.
It certainly does seem that Mamluk military tradition played a key role in the development of the kaskara, as well as the continued use of mail which has added to the medieval character of the Sudanese armoury.