Hi
I've read this thread with interest. I've seen a lot of these flimsy, flat bladed Sudanese items with the acid etched "thuluth" over the years, and came to the conclusion that most if not all, were made post Anglo-Egyptian conquest of 1898, for resale to Europeans. As already noted, they are usually fairly crudely made, with blunt edges and I doubt if they were intended as real weapons.
There is a theory that within this genre, similar sheet iron "throwing knives" were made during the Mahdist era, for use by those elements of the Mahdist armies made up of black, non-Islamic warriors. So there is a possibilty these "tourist" items derived from this source - but thats only a theory... I would certainly like to see some hard documentary type of evidence to conclusively solve the origin of these objects.
Question : the sheet iron imported from Europe ??
Last edited by colin henshaw; 9th December 2012 at 09:43 AM.
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