Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Kaskara Cross-guards—a second essay for comment by Ed Hunley

Ian · 19th August 2018, 02:03 AM

An interesting example also comes from Almay Stock Images (Figure 5). It shows an upside down view of a brass quillon on a sword given by Ali Dinar to Slatin Pasha in 1910. Note the smoothness of the joint between the guard and the langet, an unlikely feature if it were forged and gilded.

With one exception, the known extreme-flare examples do not predate the Sultan Ali Dinar era (1899–1916). (The exception is a 1884 dated gift from him to his son Mazmal and shown on the Bonham Auction site (Figure 6). They seem to appear only in the Ali Dinar regalia and presentation swords and in those shown in Reed’s sketches from Darfur (Reed, 1987; numbers L1 and L2) of examples that were owned by the leader of a tribal section affiliated with Dinar's dynastic base and were handed down from probably the early 20th Century. I have not seen any extreme flared swords reported to be British war trophies of the 1885 and 1898 battles with the Mahdists, or other heirlooms from Mahdist or earlier Sudanese contexts.

Ali Dinar is known to have had a workshop in El Fashir to "produce locally many of the articles of kingly ambience that characterized the life-style of the region’s elite" (L. Kaptelins and J. Spaulding, Gifts Worthy of Kings: An Episode in Dar Fur-Taqali Relations, 1990.) He presented to Makk Jayli of Taqali several "instruments of state" including a native-made (not imported) sword, "silvered, with rivets of silver, decorative beads of silver, mother of pearl, silver rings, a silver pommel and tanned leather" and other weapons wound in silver wire (Kaptelins & Spaulding, 1990, p. 68). No date of the gift or description of the quillons is available. Taqali was a small sultanate in the Nuba Hills of southern Kordofan. It was conquered by Mahdist forces, but again became semi-autonomous at the British Reconquest when the gifts were presented.

It is easy to believe that Ali Dinar's craftsmen and jewelers had the design inspiration and skills to expand the common slightly flared quillon into the elegant version we see in his regalia and diplomatic creations. One reason for the flared design may have been to create space on the quillon ends to inscribe religious or genealogical texts (See Figure 5 above). The crack in the Ali Dinar's workshop theory lies in the flared copper alloy quillon sword given by him to his son in 1884 noted above and in Figure 6. The former Sultanate of Darfur was conquered by Egypt in 1874 and by the Mahdi's forces in 1883. Those conditions would provide little opportunities for such a sword to be made. It is doubtful that the craftsmen and facilities persisted for some three generations from the reigns of Ali Dinar's ancestors of the Keira dynasty. They may have drawn technical expertise from the Bornu kingdom and other more civilizing influences from the west, but there is no evidence that this happened.

Julie Anderson and others of the British Museum have written an excellent article Royal Regalia: a sword of the last Sultan of Darfur, Ali Dinar (In: Sudan & Nubia, Sudan Archaeological Research Society Bulletin 20, 2016, p.161). Permission has been requested to place this article on the EAA web site in the Geographic Section under Africa (a link will be provided here when that occurs).

Another example of an exaggerated flared lozenge is the Nasir Mohammad Funj-era sword, now in the Sudanese National Museum in Khartoum. It has been dated to 1762. It has a forged iron Sammaniya quillon, like the Ali Dinar examples, but has a star and comet silver grip cover similar to examples brought back to England from the 1899 war. The Nasir blade could well be 18th Century, but the grip appears to be much later. See Fig. 7 which shows the unrestored grip end.

Not all flared quillons are associated with Sudan. Figure 8 (www.michaeldlong.com/Catalogue/Swords/19th-Century/Rest-of-the-World/Italian-SPQR-Short-Sword.aspx) is a modern Italian SPQR short sword. The copper alloy quillon is indistinguishable from a Sammaniya quillon. It even has the decorative “X,” but no apparent langets. The site supposes that it is 20th C. It would be interesting to explore the design linkage.

----------Figures 5,6,7,8----------
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19th August 2018, 02:03 AM	#2
Ian Vikingsword Staff Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: The Aussie Bush Posts: 4,522	Kaskara Cross-guards—a second essay for comment by Ed Hunley (part 2) An interesting example also comes from Almay Stock Images (Figure 5). It shows an upside down view of a brass quillon on a sword given by Ali Dinar to Slatin Pasha in 1910. Note the smoothness of the joint between the guard and the langet, an unlikely feature if it were forged and gilded. With one exception, the known extreme-flare examples do not predate the Sultan Ali Dinar era (1899–1916). (The exception is a 1884 dated gift from him to his son Mazmal and shown on the Bonham Auction site (Figure 6). They seem to appear only in the Ali Dinar regalia and presentation swords and in those shown in Reed’s sketches from Darfur (Reed, 1987; numbers L1 and L2) of examples that were owned by the leader of a tribal section affiliated with Dinar's dynastic base and were handed down from probably the early 20th Century. I have not seen any extreme flared swords reported to be British war trophies of the 1885 and 1898 battles with the Mahdists, or other heirlooms from Mahdist or earlier Sudanese contexts. Ali Dinar is known to have had a workshop in El Fashir to "produce locally many of the articles of kingly ambience that characterized the life-style of the region’s elite" (L. Kaptelins and J. Spaulding, Gifts Worthy of Kings: An Episode in Dar Fur-Taqali Relations, 1990.) He presented to Makk Jayli of Taqali several "instruments of state" including a native-made (not imported) sword, "silvered, with rivets of silver, decorative beads of silver, mother of pearl, silver rings, a silver pommel and tanned leather" and other weapons wound in silver wire (Kaptelins & Spaulding, 1990, p. 68). No date of the gift or description of the quillons is available. Taqali was a small sultanate in the Nuba Hills of southern Kordofan. It was conquered by Mahdist forces, but again became semi-autonomous at the British Reconquest when the gifts were presented. It is easy to believe that Ali Dinar's craftsmen and jewelers had the design inspiration and skills to expand the common slightly flared quillon into the elegant version we see in his regalia and diplomatic creations. One reason for the flared design may have been to create space on the quillon ends to inscribe religious or genealogical texts (See Figure 5 above). The crack in the Ali Dinar's workshop theory lies in the flared copper alloy quillon sword given by him to his son in 1884 noted above and in Figure 6. The former Sultanate of Darfur was conquered by Egypt in 1874 and by the Mahdi's forces in 1883. Those conditions would provide little opportunities for such a sword to be made. It is doubtful that the craftsmen and facilities persisted for some three generations from the reigns of Ali Dinar's ancestors of the Keira dynasty. They may have drawn technical expertise from the Bornu kingdom and other more civilizing influences from the west, but there is no evidence that this happened. Julie Anderson and others of the British Museum have written an excellent article Royal Regalia: a sword of the last Sultan of Darfur, Ali Dinar (In: Sudan & Nubia, Sudan Archaeological Research Society Bulletin 20, 2016, p.161). Permission has been requested to place this article on the EAA web site in the Geographic Section under Africa (a link will be provided here when that occurs). Another example of an exaggerated flared lozenge is the Nasir Mohammad Funj-era sword, now in the Sudanese National Museum in Khartoum. It has been dated to 1762. It has a forged iron Sammaniya quillon, like the Ali Dinar examples, but has a star and comet silver grip cover similar to examples brought back to England from the 1899 war. The Nasir blade could well be 18th Century, but the grip appears to be much later. See Fig. 7 which shows the unrestored grip end. Not all flared quillons are associated with Sudan. Figure 8 (www.michaeldlong.com/Catalogue/Swords/19th-Century/Rest-of-the-World/Italian-SPQR-Short-Sword.aspx) is a modern Italian SPQR short sword. The copper alloy quillon is indistinguishable from a Sammaniya quillon. It even has the decorative “X,” but no apparent langets. The site supposes that it is 20th C. It would be interesting to explore the design linkage. ----------Figures 5,6,7,8---------- . Attached Images Last edited by Ian; 22nd August 2018 at 06:05 AM.