[Iain]

Originally Posted by Edster

Iain,

My only knowledge of cast kaskara blades is a comment from an informant at the sword makers market in Kassala in 1985. He said that during the Mahdiya most native made blades were cast and very brittle, often breaking in battle. Many warriors carried wooden swords and picked up weapons of the fallen. Such cast blades may have been regalia and not suited for battle. A lot of swords were picked up from defeated Anglo-Egyptian armies. Also, hand forged iron blades were made from locally refined iron ore. I'm unaware of the extent and time frames that steel metallurgy was practiced by local Sahel blade smiths. Surely not all battle blades were imported from the 16th-18th centuries or recirculated as battlefield pick-ups. How did the Funj army of Sennar source its swords? So many questions.

I notice on your linked Takouba that the half-moon was added after the etching. Perhaps the subject kaskara is a re-hilted takouba as suggested by the blade profile.

Take care,
Ed

Hi Ed,

Thanks for the additional details. I am more familiar with the western Sahel as you know - where among the Hausa iron working has an extremely long history. In fact the major Hausa cities were founded in areas with large iron ore deposits (although this quality varied region to region). I would assume the same would be true for Sudan societies like Sennar. I've never heard of cast blades among other groups in the Sahel - the melting point on iron would be quite a bit higher I gather than on the typical metals which were cast; bronze, brass, etc. I will look through the few resources I have on Hausa metal working and see if I turn anything up.

I would imagine the source of swords for Sennar was much the same as it was in the 19th century - European imports and locally produced blades as well. The only illustration of a Sennar sword I'm aware of is a kaskara in a drawing of a king from 1821. Given the similarities with Mamluk swords - I see no reason not to think Sennar would have used much the same style of weaponry in earlier periods?

Lane, writing from Egypt in 1831 mentioned the import of German blades and that these went to Sennar.

More and more I am beginning to think there was no specific pattern for takouba - within kaskara generally speaking it doesn't seem there was heavily re-profiling of the blades. In takouba of course there generally was to get the narrow tip. In that sense I am of the opinion the blades shipped in where not to one pattern or the other but simply reshaped and adapted locally as desired.

Great eye spotting the later application of the half moon marks! This is pretty interesting I think as it a) means they were applied locally to a European blade and b) that it wasn't a first step, the thuluth was.

I am only aware of two examples of takouba with thuluth - the one I linked to and a regalia sword from one of the Hausa emirates.


Jim,

I have always been curious how Briggs arrived at his Hausa attribution. While kaskara are found in Kanuri (Bornu/Kanem) territory, I'm not aware of them really among the Hausa at all. Either in historical photos or modern times. So how Briggs came up with that has always been a puzzle to me.

This is merely a personal impression - but it has seemed to me there are far fewer native forged kaskara than takouba. Most kaskara seem to be either trade blades if older or the recycled steel sources you mentioned if later.

Whereas in takouba one encounters quite a lot of locally forged blades. I am more familiar with the organization of Hausa military forces - where arms were stockpiled and handed out by the ruler in war time. I guess meaning that you could find a soldier with a sword even if they didn't own it.

I am trying to find more sources on Sennar - interestingly swords and armour seem to crop up pretty regularly when Googling about the kingdom - although details are elusive as always...

All the best,

Iain