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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
Ibrahiim , thank you so very much for such kind words! Actually the opportunity to learn is mostly mine as I try to discover as much as I can to respond to the fascinating queries on these pages.
Regarding the French influences in the Red Sea trade regions, while there was certainly some degree, it was largely outshone by the volume of German blades in particular entering various entrepots mostly through British trade venues. The 'hussar' blades from East European influences were primarily via trade from Styria and the Caucusus largely through Syria as well as of course other points of contact with Arab trade. I have seen many sabres with 'Hungarian' motifs that were clearly mounted in Syria, and have seen them actually misidentified as Hungarian hussar sabres.
Most of the French blades as far as I know were situated primarily in the Western Sudan, West Africa sphere and this is why the so called 'Manding' sabres seem to almost invariably have French sabre blades. These blades also reached further into the Sahara and Tuareg takoubas with these curved blades, a distinct anomaly, are classified as 'aljuinar'. There are of course instances of kaskara mounted with French blades or with French inscriptions in various incidental cases, but these were not regularly seen. I am sure that such instances occurred throughout the well travelled Red Sea routes.
Thank you again, and for keeping these discussions going strong.
All the best,
Jim
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Salaams Jim ~ I find the potential French influence intimidating from a number of viewpoints such as the relatively short campaigns couple of years by Napoleon Bonaparte where they lost 30,000 men (and the opposition lost several hundred thousand)and the much bigger time frame leading up to the French revolution and covered in the pamphlet by Dr Sheikh Sultan al Qassimi ruler of Sharjah of about 300 years describing the French and British in the Indian Ocean (I've a spare copy; please PM me with your address and I will send you it). If Hussar blades influenced French blades we should at some point, I suspect, run into one or two?
Regards Ibrahiim al Balooshi.