Dear Ed, First congratulations on this great thread and clearly a whole lot of effort has gone into its production.
Perhaps you can note that it is arranged in direct opposite to the thread we are dealing upon over the likeness to Manding and other weapons across the region...and that in the first instance you align this detail below in italic;
Note: Mandinka swords from West Africa also have a leaf-shaped scabbard, but there are apparently no strong cultural links that would have influenced the design of the kaskara’s scabbard.]
and that further on you suggest that it was Manding that passed on the flared scabbard at hajj to the Sudani at Hajj. pitt rivers museum think experts show it was the other way around but notwithstanding the direction it was transferred from would that not indicate a certain degree of liason between the two nations in contradiction of your earlier suggestion of little or no cultural links? Moreover would not the fact that both nations had adopted the Arabic alphabet be of some support to the contrary.
Would not the proven catalysts of war, religion, trade, exploration have come under the broad brush of interaction and liaison/ cultural exchange? Other experts according to museum reports suggest that the scabbard was a crocodile form and was known across broad swathes of tribal Africa and that the reason for its geometric as opposed to animal design was owing to the rules for artistic impression in the religion and that leatherworkers were the first Manding to convert to Islam at least in the Manding homeland...but that Sudan converted earlier being much further east.
Could it be that Manding and kaskara are not fighting weapons. We know that the higher ranking Sudani wearers of the silver hilts never used the kaskara to fight. Badge of office only.
I see little evidence that any of these were weapons as such save the possibility that the cross guard is a fighting sword marker in other countries...yet equally I could point out that many of these kaskara when adopted by the Mahdi had very flimsy blades and more designed as carriers of Islamic quotations and edicts rather than battle swords yet they has the same guards.. Alam in miniature carried by thousands of warriors as inspiration and religious guidance etc
If the Manding was not a weapon then what was the role of the kaskara?
Was it not the case that although carried into war they were originally not actual battle swords? Naturally the weapon which did most damage was the spear and lance but the question raises the point of what was the primary use for this so called weapon..Was it not purely psychological?
Thus I think that is two questions of some importance~
1. What evidence is there that the kaskara was a fighting weapon?
2. Which way was the transfer of technology/style (to the East or West) and surely the influence was present as the two countries were in fact culturally linked ?
|