Kaskara for Comment.

[Rick]

The Piso Podang's pommel ??

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Rick

The Piso Podang's pommel ??

Good call Rick! Thats what I'm looking at dead center, a piso podang with that distinct turbanesque pommel. Interestingly, like the tulwar, whose pommels are believed to represent variations of stupa in degree, perhaps these type pommels are also architectural in origin.

Best regards,
Jim

[katana]

Hi Rick and Jim ,
I am probably 'grasping at straws' but I cannot find another Kaskara with a 'remotely' similar pommel. The piso podang is generally considered to be 'Indian' influenced. A number of Sudanese weapons IMHO are also 'Indian' influenced (the haldie and the 'horned mace' spring to mind).
With the constant trade between India, the Arabs and North Eastern Africa ...'styles' would 'migrate'.

Afterall, why would a piso podang be displayed in a Yemen Millitary Museum

The pommel on my Kaskara seems quite rare and possibly influenced from, perhaps India. The question is, if this is correct, why would the owner/creator of this sword choose this design ? Why is it so different from the standardised pommel.
I have posted this on SFI asking if anyone had any ideas as to the origins of the pommel design .....I have received no replies

Regards David

[Rumpel]

Sorry to revive a dead thread, but I spent my lunch break salivating over the BM's Sackler Gallery today.

They have a beautiful silver-hilted kaskara on temporary display this week (they're rejigging the African weapons cases at the moment) with a gorgeous European-foliate design hammered-sliver hilt but similar pommel. The tag just said Sudan, 20th c, but I think that's a failure of description on their part. The (huge) throwing knives case had a tag saying, essentially, 'we have no idea what any of these are or mean...'

[katana]

Hi Rumpel,
thank you for for remembering this thread , I have tried to find an image on the web (of the sword you mentioned), but have been unsucessful. Do you have a picture or a link ? Thank you
Kind Regards David

[Jim McDougall]

Rumpel, I join David in thanking you for reviving this thread. The kaskaras and takoubas are topics many of us here have profound interest in, and I am honestly always saddened when these threads just stall and disappear into the archives. It is heartening to see interest in them, and I always look forward to new entries.
You are unfortunately right, there is always a good measure of lack of interest in pursuing accurate detail in many museums, as they often do not consider such detail worthy of budget issues or even worse, many museums have simply stored away many weapons for PC issues. I know there are many museum professionals out there who read here, and hope you all know, the many of you who take a serious professional approach are well recognized and very much appreciated.
As for the others, we can only hope they will also join in at some point. I know there are probably many of us out there who would gladly volunteer to assist in cataloguing items....I know of several right now doing just that.
Our gratitude goes out to all of you.

All the best,
Jim

[Edster]

This is my first post so kindly forgive any errors.

The stamp blade mark in an 8/9/09 exchange between Rick and Wodimi (Wolf) is the Fly or duran . It’s a bit of symbolic magic so the user can jump like a fly when fighting. See the attached photo of a similar version of the mark from the Kassala, Sudan Suq al Haddad circa 1984

Also, silver furniture on the sword handles also is magic in that it protects the user from sword wounds. Copper also protects, but silver trumps copper.

Thanks,
Edster