Help required to identify a strange stamp on a Kaskara blade

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams Ed, The collation of data of that magnitude would be amazing...From my perspective I think the fact that we now have a concrete basis to work on having removed the shroud of secrecy from this puzzle is pretty incredible and stems from your sharp eye seeing the word forty in arabic in a disguised form ...When you look at the way talisman were set up in that region it is amazing that you recognized the word at all...The marabouts (spell makers) were more than capable of selecting about 5 different languages including Hebrew from which to choose a confusing array of indecipherable letters some the wrong way around or deformed.

On follow up I detected about 20 other figure 40 potential Talisman but none seemed to either fit except the most powerful one I gave. There was one other which said Quote" It is said that a person’s intellect attains maturity in forty years, everyone according to his own capacity." Unquote. This may have had something to do with Tuareg men on reaching 40 attaining a sort of pious state ...or Pilgrim attitude...and having their heads shaved but I discounted that in favour of the stronger issue.

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Edster]

Awad Adam, a Kassala blade smith, offhandedly described the mark to me as an arbain (40) so I can't claim that insight, but I am glad I wrote it down in my field notes. Every time I think of that time among the sword makers I wish I had asked more questions and taken more photographs. But then again my focus was the "social economics of swordmaking" and only nibbled about the edges of the much larger Kaskara Realm as such.

[Jim McDougall]

Miguel, thank you again for such kind words!
Whatever knowledge I have gained has been mostly through discussions here on these pages and guys like Iain and Ed, who have so openly shared the outstanding findings they have compiled in their studies.

Ibrahiim, again thank you for such tenacious and detailed insight into the aspects which may be involved with these markings. It is compelling indeed that much deeper imbuement than simply the 'magic' implied by use of native artisans in their blades may have been at some point adopted in application of markings.

As Ed has noted, and as discussed some years ago, his discussions with these native artisans at Kassala in 1984 yielded some fascinating information on sword making at that juncture , and their perspectives on many aspects of these blades.

It does seem that European prototype markings found on trade and otherwise acquired blades throughout North African regions did become spuriously applied by native artisans. Further, it seems that certain marks were more favored than others as they became repurposed and adopted into native application, viewed in their own perceptions.

The paired crescent moon markings which became known as 'dukari' and seem to have been associated mostly in Hausa context (Briggs, 1965), appear to have been somewhat faithful to the examples probably seen on some European blades....clearly 'man in the moon' crescents. While unclear why these became so favored and consistently used on native blades, mostly in the Sahara, these marks seem to have remained discernable as crescent moon heads for some time. It appears later that as the die stamps became damaged or worn, the images became less distinguishable.

It would be hard to say just how the 'magic' notion became applied to these kinds of blades, termed 'masri' (Rodd, 1928) meaning 'Egyptian or from the north. Obviously the European use of these moons often was seen as with magic or occult talismanic properties, but how far that carried into native parlance seems quite unclear. Perhaps the native folk religion and the importance of lunar symbolism was at hand.

In later years, into the 20th century, many blades appeared with paired devices in the same blade location and configuration, perhaps intended to convey the same kind of imbuement but with other symbols. These were squiggles, the letter P, and other devices or geometric designs, but many were the former crescent moon, but in highly stylized forms.

It seems that in these later times, with the paired configuration motif placed in same central blade location, there may have been more opportunity to have conceived the notion of using the 'arbain' character in the context of these moons or dukari. Whether this notation of the image or device actually being the arbain is of course open to speculation, but this information is definitely compelling.

In these later times, it does not seem implausible that such religiously oriented symbolism would be used in marking these blades, and we have learned that interpretations of many earlier marks have taken new meanings in native parlance. We know that imbuement in the marking of blades has long been a key factor in many African circumstances, and recalling the use of 'thuluth' motif on the Mahdist blades presents a good example of how such decoration, motif or even simple stamping can be a powerful perception in these weapons.

Miguel, regarding these blades, I would always defer to Iain, however I do not personally believe either of these blades to be European, though the three fullered one does seem older. The second one seems possibly to be of the high grade steel often obtained from the industrial sources there, often said to be railway materials or vehicular springs.

Remember, many of the swords were made in this way for many years during and after the Mahdist period, well into 20th c.

[Miguel]

Thank you Ed, Ibrahiim and Jim for sharing your knowledge and time. I, for one, have found it fascinating and very informative. Thank you again.
Regards
Miguel