Kaskara with Arabic "seal" stamp

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by A.alnakkas

hmm, well the stamp has a common name through out the muslim world. Be it urdu, arabic or persian.. it will still be written all the same.

Thanks very much, that is good to know and thus the possibility of a stamp being used by an intermediary in the trade complex with a stamp which could be from many locations. With the Indian swords I have seen with these stamped cartouches (typically square) they were tulwars stamped nearest the blade edge at the ricasso...these blades typically also had a stamped 'trisula' at blade center. (see Rawson, "The Indian Sword", #44; V&A 3459).

With the other instance I have seen a circular stamp on Algerian 'nimcha' sabres, as described in "European Blades in Tuareg Swords and Daggers", Dr. Lloyd Cabot Briggs ( JAAS, Vol.V, #2, p.78-79). noted as follows,"...the ricasso is stamped on one side only with a circular stamp containing an illegible combination of Arabic characters in high relief". There are line drawings with this shown (pl.XVII, b) and it is noted there are two swords, both Algerian with nearly identical blades. The first with the cartouche has sickle mark as well; the second has no cartouche, but ANDREA FERARA.

I do not agree with the assessment of 16th-17th c. Italian or German for the two blades, they appear to be of 18th century Solingen production as the triple fuller configuration on sabre blade suggests, as does the Andrea Ferara stamped name.

The point is that the stamp occurring on one side only of the blade of one of two sabres imported from Germany in either beginning to perhaps mid 19th c.
suggests it may have been a worn stamp being used by a trader or merchant on one of these. The fact that the stamp on this blade is apparantly from the same stamp with varied quality is to the application by the user.

Briggs notes that the cartouche was likely added later in the region received of course than at production, and that various marks including the sickles are known to be added as such, apparantly in Sudan (kaskara H2, op.cit.)as well as other regions, in this case Algeria.

Naturally the nature of the blade itself must be considered, and this is of course a broadsword blade of the type used on kaskaras, and not used as far as I know on Indian swords, nor on Algerian nimchas. Also the stamped location does not correspond to the other instances noted, so this stands as an amomaly in kaskara blades until others are found.