Sometimes it can be hard to tell. The crocodile had important symbolic meaning, and crocodile and other reptile hide was used to wrap weapon hilts within the culture. Of course, with interest in souvenirs peaking after the battle of Omdurman in the 1890s, the use of crocodile parts went overboard.
To me the sword looks like it was originally a fighting sword, quite possibly used during the Mahdiya. It is very possible that it received its scabbard later to appeal to the Western market. Good pictures of the blade and any markings would be nice, and you can see that the crossguard is of an earlier, higher quality type per Ed Hunley's article in this forum - if you put "kaskara crossguard" in the search function you should be able to find it easily.
It is kind of sad that it got its current fittings - both from the point of view of the animal (and PETA) and my point of view as a collector, as this was probably a nice decent quality sword.
Teodor
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