Hi Jim,
Sennar ceased to be an independent sultanate in 1821 and was absorbed into Ottoman Egypt, later Egyptian Sudan. However Sennar was overrun by the Mahdi and his forces during the uprising. What you are suggesting is certainly a fairly probable vector for the thuluth weapons seen during this period.
Bivar is particularly emphatic about the influence and flow of arms out of Egypt into the rest of Africa. Regarding the triple fuller blades - there is a note in "Exchange Economy of Pre-Colonial Tropical Africa" by Sundstrom of a Solingen blade made to the "Tuareg" pattern and that straight blades were also imported to Darfur. I have linked previously in this thread to a Solingen blade (WC Clauberg) of the triple fuller pattern. It seems reasonably clear to me these blades were not made to a Tuareg/takouba pattern or a kaskara pattern. But were a general trade item taken up not just in Africa, but as you note in other regions as well.
I personally wouldn't describe Tuareg swordsmanship as basic - travelers like Lyon seemed suitably impressed.
"Their swords are straight and of great length, and they wield them with much ease and dexterity."
The lack of thrusting I think is a function merely of the opponents they would usually face - lightly armored for the most part. There are intriguing notes about their martial capabilities in some obscure sources like this 1933 publication regarding
Moroccan Jujutsu by Armand Brigaud.
"Touareg swordsmen have a trick of kicking at the outthrust leg of an"
enemy swordsman while parrying a slash or a stroke. The split seconds
needed by their antagonists to recover their balance enable them to bring home
lightning thrusts or overhand counter-slashes."
So it would appear it was quite a bit more than just hack and slash!
Regarding the Hausa and black smithing. It is important to note the role metalworking had in these societies and the classes that formed around that.
THE IMAGE OF HAUSA SMITHS
IN SOME WRITTEN SOURCES by Stanistaw PIkASZEWICZ is a good starting point.
There were differences in the quality produced between areas - for example Barth notes that around Kano the ore was inferior to that around Sokoto - where a very large smithing community existed, the
Makera Assada. Other examples of this quality gap can be seen between places like Maradi, which produced inferior iron swords and Damagaram(Zinder) which apparently produced much higher quality items, including cannon (see “A Hausa kingdom: Maradi under Dan Beskore, 1854-1875.” by M.G. Smith). Zinder was a particularly interesting town, being a former vassal state of the Bornu empire, ruled by a Kanuri elite, but with a largely Hausa population and a significant Tuareg presence. A real melting pot!
So in short, the Hausa both traded and produced arms. Although production seems to have varied region to region. The flow of blades from Kano into the Sudan (well noted as a trade item often picked up by the caravans) were quite probably a mix then of European imports and native made blades. However I suspect that fewer native blades would have made the trip as the quality differences compared with European blades may have made the resale and profits margins rather small when factoring in the portage involved.
All the best,
Iain