Hi Stephen,
I always get excited when anyone posts either takoubas or kaskaras, as we have had many great discussions on them over the years, and I am always looking for clues and information that might be added.
Yours is a nicely representative example of the well established Sudanese kaskara, and is of course a 20th century piece which has clearly been remounted in traditional scabbard and leather wrapped hilt. The blade is possibly earlier, and as most weapons in these desert cultures, the remounting is pretty much standard practice. These are still worn as important elements of traditional costume in varying degree.
Concerning the brass crossguard, I have a Mahdist period example with the thuluth covered blade and brass crossguard, which also seemed atypical to me. It seems that Darfur examples and those of most Sudanese kaskara are indeed of iron. I believe that my example with brass guard may be Hausa as it corresponds to the example shown in Briggs.
In a discussion I had with an authority with the British Museum some years ago, he suggested that the brass guard was likely an apotropaic measure, as in local superstition and folk religion there are certain fears of touching iron. In this perspective, the iron represents death, however the brass is symbolic of life. I believe these concepts also apply with the Tuareg and thier takoubas, in which the hilts are invariably covered in leather. It should be noted that the Hausa are often with the Tuareg blacksmiths, and while the familiar dual crescent moons seen on virtually all takouba blades in some measure, they are seen in the kaskara blades attributed to Hausa.
I hope this will be of some help, its a good question and I think would be interesting to look into it further. The same concept of iron= evil or death and brass or bronze = life, good etc. is applicable in the Hindu weapons philosophy in some degree (see Elgood, "Hindu Arms & Ritual").
Best regards,
Jim
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