Unusual Arab Islamic African sword with inscription

RSWORD · 9th December 2010, 12:42 PM

Hi Iain,

I agree there are a lot of Tebu similarities in both the scabbard and the handle. The Tebu were present in the Sudan and I was reading in one of my reference books that Sultan Ali Dinar had a large personal collection of swords and other arms. He seemed quite fond of that so to have a variety of styles, especially maybe out of respect of some of the ethnic groups that were in his area, may have been important to him. I agree that there are some good possibilities this is one of his swords. The inscription is in line with many I can find referenced. I also found a kaskara referenced that had those extra hanging pieces. I have not seen this in any other sword before so the fact another kaskara with similar inscription and similar extra hanging pieces is the type of circumstantial evidence that I am comfortable saying my sword was probably owned by Sultan Ali Dinar but unless I can run across a photograph that shows him with this sword it would be difficult to say it definitely was owned by him. Anyone have a large photo archive of Sultan Ali Dinar?

9th December 2010, 12:42 PM	#13
RSWORD Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Greensboro, NC Posts: 1,086	Hi Iain, I agree there are a lot of Tebu similarities in both the scabbard and the handle. The Tebu were present in the Sudan and I was reading in one of my reference books that Sultan Ali Dinar had a large personal collection of swords and other arms. He seemed quite fond of that so to have a variety of styles, especially maybe out of respect of some of the ethnic groups that were in his area, may have been important to him. I agree that there are some good possibilities this is one of his swords. The inscription is in line with many I can find referenced. I also found a kaskara referenced that had those extra hanging pieces. I have not seen this in any other sword before so the fact another kaskara with similar inscription and similar extra hanging pieces is the type of circumstantial evidence that I am comfortable saying my sword was probably owned by Sultan Ali Dinar but unless I can run across a photograph that shows him with this sword it would be difficult to say it definitely was owned by him. Anyone have a large photo archive of Sultan Ali Dinar?