Now here is an anomaly! The blade profile is very much as seen in many native produced blades for kaskara, but I cannot think of ever seeing any which were 'Damascus'. I'm sure those here with metallurgical expertise might give better account of this case, but I do not believe this is a European blade. While as noted there may have been instances of pattern welded blades in European context they are not among the 'trade blades' which entered the North African sphere.
The mounts appear to be of modern 'Kasallawi' style which are produced in this area of Sudan from around 1960s as I understand (Reed, 1987) and often associated with Darfur. These blades were of course remounted many times over generations so using them to assess the blade age is often counterproductive.
What is most curious are the engraved intaglio and angelic figure devices on the blade which are typically regarded as in the "Caissagnard' style and usually found on French blades on court swords, smallswords and hangers of mid to end of 18th century. As this type blade, and certainly not pattern welded or damascened was not in use in European swords at this time nor later it would seem that perhaps these engravings were copied on this blade by a quite skilled artisan in native trade entrepots.
Just my thoughts and as always very much look forward to other views.
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