Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! I'm completely on board with Lee and Charles in that this seems likely to be Omani, and is most likely, as noted, a rugged piece carried by a tribesman. While this one certainly carries none of the attractiveness of the examples from Oman as seen on Artzis site, it is definitely loaded with desert charm and perhaps mystery.
While this has appearances of the kattara, especially in the guardless hilt, and has a blade typical of kaskaras, seen also on the Omani kattaras, there are elements that do bring this to North Africa.
The presence of reptile skin is one, but also the blade tip is sharpened to a spear type point, contrary to the somewhat spatulate tips on kattaras. The rugged cloth wrapping suggests many desert weapons carried by tribes of Bedouin .
I have always considered the unusual guardless sabres of the Manding, found primarily in Mali, to be possibly associated to the Omani kattara at least nominally owing to the hilt. The trade routes of the Sahara clearly diffused both cultural elements as well as weaponry across North Africa, which clearly has included forms from as far as Zanzibar, through Ethiopia and points through and beyond. The Omani Sultanate at Zanzibar was of course one of the key trade centers throughout the 19th century, and I strongly believe the weapon forms, especially the kattara, found thier way into both Red Sea trade routes in the maritime sense, and into the Sudan, Sahara as well. Since this was typically not of course, a singular push of that entire distance, but the result of tribal interface and trade at given point, these weapons might well have come into Bedouin hands, or certainly influenced the tribesmen.
There is the mystery..at what point in North Africa, and by what tribal group, would this interpretive kattara have become incarnate? By appearance it seems somewhat Bedouin, the reptile skin suggests the Sudan, and the shape and style of the hilt suggests anything from Oman itself to Mali.
It should be noted that cylindrical hilts, however with a pommel, carrying kaskara form blades are also known in West Africa as far as Sierra Leone.
A very interesting piece, definitely has charisma!
All the best,
Jim
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