Interesting Kaskara from the Askeri Museum

Jim McDougall · 20th August 2025, 08:03 PM

I agree Teodor, it was the blades that were arriving in volume through the various centers at the ports, then into the trade networks. While there may have been incidental arrival of fully assembled swords from Europe, typically it was the blades which were in demand and for local hilting.

The fully assembled swords were those circulating among the Mamluks during their rule in Egypt, and the subsequent upheavals and relocation which were the strongest influence on the development of Sudanese kaskara hilts, as well described in Ed's excellent work.
As noted, only a VERY tenacious researcher in Egypt and other Ottoman resources would be able to find records of these matters.

Kinda wonder where Burckhardt got those statistical numbers.

WAY curiouser and curiouser!!

Edster · 21st August 2025, 05:28 PM

TVV, Jim, Good observations.

It could be that the "kaskara" began to get its distinctive style via the relative flat ends of the Sennariya cross guard. Likely made in Sennar by local blacksmiths and distributed to the markets and fitted say at Shendy market to the imported blades. Then distributed throughout the area as complete swords as many caravans, including to Dongola, came through Shendy. It's not as complex to forge as the perhaps later developed lozenge style Sammaniya we normally recognise.

See discussion of the Sennariya guard from Page 9 of my Kaskara Crossguards paper and Figs. 8 & 9. (I can't extract the figures to illustrate.)

Best,
Ed

Pertinax · 21st August 2025, 07:17 PM

A very interesting and confusing topic about the import of blades from Europe to Africa.

The funniest thing is that I am currently studying and trying to figure out the import of blades to Central Africa, I will not “clutter” this topic, if I achieve any results I will create a new publication.

The question arises, can old sources be trusted unconditionally?

Burckhardt reports:
- blades are brought from Solingen in Germany; about three thousand of them are sold annually in Cairo to southern traders.

Jim reasonably asks the question - where do these statistics come from?

Further in the text - these swords are of German manufacture and are sold to the Nubians by Egyptian merchants at a price of four to eight dollars apiece.

Probably, he meant some “Spanish dollars”, in any case, be it Spanish, English, French or other European currency, this is a very serious amount even for Europe at that time, not to mention Africa.

For example, when H. Barth received 2 Spanish dollars in a letter in 1851 while in Gummel, it was a very significant sum for him.

That is why Burckhardt writes that those who can afford it own a sword.
The question arises - how many remained in Sudan?

Most travelers of that time in Africa write about blades from Solingen. In my opinion, this is a generalized concept of blades from Europe.

Directly for Solingen, we managed to find out:
1846 - Population census, 6,127 people live in Solingen.
1853 - The "first" industrial steam engine in Solingen was installed at the Henckels plant.

I was unable to find out how many blades Solingen manufactories could produce in the first half of the 19th century.

But not all products were sold to Africa, there were large orders from Europe.

In general, questions, questions, questions.

Jim McDougall · 22nd August 2025, 12:34 AM

Yuri, thank you for coming in, and these are most valid questions. What comes to mind right away is in reading on the Mahdist uprisings years ago, it is noted that in the very beginnings of the jihad, the native forces of the Mahdi were poorly armed, and very few had swords. In the initial conflicts, many only had sticks instead of swords, and they would either pick up the swords of the fallen who had them, or of course capture weapons from 'enemy' forces. It was not for some time that the Mahdi ordered swords to be made, though the emphasis was of course on rifles, ammunition and powder.

Though most native tribes relied primarily on spears and various knife forms, it is true that despite numbers of swords in circulation in degree, the larger numbers of tribesmen did not have them in Sudan. It seems that to the west, in the Sahara and Sahel and into West Africa swords were more common to tribesmen, with Tuareg warriors in particular, commonly had broadswords, though mpst commonly preferred the spear.

Dragging out my well worn copy of Burton ("Book of the Sword" 1884), on p.162:
"...Denham and Clapperton inform us that the Knights of Malta exported great numbers of the straight double edged blades which they affected to Benghazi, in North Africa, where they were exchanged for bullocks. From the Tripolitan they were borne across the Sahara to Bornu, to Hausaland and to Kano , where they were remounted for the use of the population. Modern travellers note that the trade still continues at Kano, where some FIFTY THOUSAND blades were annually imported across the Meditteranean.
Hence they are passed on to the Pule(Fulah) and Fulbe tribes. the Hausas, the Bornuese, and others traveling in the north western interior".

From "Travels in Northern and Central Africa in 1822-24" Denham, Clapperton and Oudney, London, 1826.

These accounts from this early in the 19th century would indicate that in this period, the import of blades into Africa was more a case of probably the tons of surplus that had been piled up in the stores of the Knights of Malta, which indeed probably had swords from the times of the crusades. The nature of these stockpiles may have more to do with Masonic lore than any sort of commercial venture, and with the obvious changes in weaponry, these were regarded as 'old junk'. That they were simply traded for necessities in these early advances in colonization suggests of course the negating of cost issues.

What is indicative of possible hyperbole is the suggestion of 50,000 swords per year? While large numbers of blades might be seen en masse, without regular accounting processes over extended period it would be impossible to pronounce such statistics. These kinds of narratives wrought with adventure are of course susceptible to such exaggeration.

The suggestion here is that these probably mostly old surplus blades entered trade routes more situated in Saharan, West African regions, and the farthest east was likely Bornu, but with Hausa the regional diffusion may have gone farther with thier nomadic character.

However Henry Barth, in his "Travels in Central Africa 1849-55" (London 1875) notes the blades "...mostly made at Solingen", suggesting that by mid 19th century, there were production blades arriving in North Africa.
(op. cit. Burton, p.162).
He also notes that English and Styrian razors are also imported. Never sure what is meant by razors, whether weapon or shaving.

It seems that there is mention of blades, some described as with Austrian double eagle on blades noted by Rudolf Slatin, prisoner of the Mahdi in 1883, suggesting at least some number of European blades in circulation at that time (in Khartoum). When the Mahdi died in 1885, and the Caliph took power, there was a huge advent in arms production which seems mostly centered at Omdurman. It seems many of the kaskara produced with the heavy thuluth acid etched calligraphy were Hausa produced rather than European/Solingen. There was also heavy production of other kaskara in several other locations in Sudan as well, and these had notable presence of Solingen blades. Clearly in these circumstances it was not a question of affordability, as these weapons were supplied to the Ansar, the forces for the Caliph.

I am inclined to think that blades in this period into Sudanese areas were likely through Suakin, and into Shendy though the Egyptian conduit was of course also prevalent as Sudan was under Egyptian Ottoman control. It is doubtful that the kinds of numbers of blades purported in the earlier accounts into the Sahara were at hand. We do know that the Hausa were outstanding blacksmiths and were producing blades imitating European (Rodd, 1928) and these were mostly the blades with three central fullers (with two moons) which became so prevalent on kaskara.

In illustrations, one of the Omdurman made thuluth etched blades, the familiar Hausa 'dukari' (moons) seen. These examples typically had brass crossguards as opposed to iron on most other kaskaras. (Briggs, 1965)
A crocodile covered kaskara with distinctly European blade, probably Solingen, note cosmological motif. The crossguard resembles examples shown in Reed (1985) suggested from Darfur. While it is often suggested that crocodile covered weapons were made as souvenirs, there are many taken from the field at Omdurman, and ensuing conflicts of the time.

Note: on Solingen, population statistics are often misleading as there are always outlying areas, districts etc. and of course, the numbers of shops, as well as outsourced component vendors, etc. are hard to number. The production numbers of blades for a single maker (his shop and workers) can be impressive. During the Thirty Years war, the guilds had to place restrictions on the numbers of blades produced by each maker to more evenly appropriate work. This was offset by the numbers of smiths who relocated into other locations.

* on p.162 Burton notes, "few of the Baghirmi can afford 'kaskara' (swords)".
This is the first known use of the term kaskara as far as I have found, and the term is completely unknown for the sword in Sudan as I discovered in years of researching. They refer to them as sa'if; though some tribes seem to use the term 'cross'. The term apparently entered the collectors lexicon with later writers.

Edster · 22nd August 2025, 03:01 AM

Jim,

Thanks for updating the info on travelers accounts, etc. You and I along with others mainly Iain Norman have pretty well plowed these fields, but much remains for Pertinax to provide fresh eyes and to uncover what we may have missed. I wish him well.

One issue I have been wondering about is DISTAL TAPER of the blade. The sword smiths in Kassala I observed developed this taper by eye and directed their forging assistants to strike the blade by touching it with a stick.

I've read somewhere that a blade rolling mill was sold by a British firm to the solingen makers in the Mid-19 C (?). A rolling mill allows a worker to reduce the thickness and lengthen a billet to a sword shape and thickness by successively working the hot blade through rollers and reducing the space between rollers to a desired uniform thickness.

BUT how was the distal taper made? Did they grind the taper to finish the blade? Thus, it seems to me that the close examination of the distal tapers of a known late 19C solingen blades vs those of known Kassala made blades COULD show differences in thickness of each place of manufacture. This approach could likely be naive and reflect my ignorance of factory machine and hand forged blades.

I await this view to be hooted down (or not) by someone with specific knowledge.

See the Sennari cross guard I wanted in Post #21 above

Best regards,

Ed

Jim McDougall · 22nd August 2025, 03:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edster

Jim,

Thanks for updating the info on travelers accounts, etc. You and I along with others mainly Iain Norman have pretty well plowed these fields, but much remains for Pertinax to provide fresh eyes and to uncover what we may have missed. I wish him well.

One issue I have been wondering about is DISTAL TAPER of the blade. The sword smiths in Kassala I observed developed this taper by eye and directed their forging assistants to strike the blade by touching it with a stick.

I've read somewhere that a blade rolling mill was sold by a British firm to the solingen makers in the Mid-19 C (?). A rolling mill allows a worker to reduce the thickness and lengthen a billet to a sword shape and thickness by successively working the hot blade through rollers and reducing the space between rollers to a desired uniform thickness.

BUT how was the distal taper made? Did they grind the taper to finish the blade? Thus, it seems to me that the close examination of the distal tapers of a known late 19C solingen blades vs those of known Kassala made blades COULD show differences in thickness of each place of manufacture. This approach could likely be naive and reflect my ignorance of factory machine and hand forged blades.

I await this view to be hooted down (or not) by someone with specific knowledge.

Best regards,

Ed

Yes we have Ed! and Iain made remarkable advances in these studies, then your work brought things into new dimension for me! My research prior to you guys was at snails pace and few great discoveries, but LOTS of questions.
I am absolutely with you hoping that those out there with knowledge and expertise on these manufacturing processes will come in......I for sure have virtually no understanding of them.

TVV · 22nd August 2025, 03:16 AM

Jim, is this the picture of a Funj ruler you were looking for?

Pertinax · 22nd August 2025, 09:20 AM

[QUOTE=Jim McDougall;299271]
He also notes that English and Styrian razors are also imported. Never sure what is meant by razors, whether weapon or shaving.

Henry Barth writes specifically about razors, they were in great demand in the Sahel, in his travels razors were a very important item for gifts and exchange.

Best regards,
Yuri

Jim McDougall · 22nd August 2025, 03:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edster

TVV, Jim, Good observations.

It could be that the "kaskara" began to get its distinctive style via the relative flat ends of the Sennariya cross guard. Likely made in Sennar by local blacksmiths and distributed to the markets and fitted say at Shendy market to the imported blades. Then distributed throughout the area as complete swords as many caravans, including to Dongola, came through Shendy. It's not as complex to forge as the perhaps later developed lozenge style Sammaniya we normally recognise.

See discussion of the Sennariya guard from Page 9 of my Kaskara Crossguards paper and Figs. 8 & 9. (I can't extract the figures to illustrate.)

Best,
Ed

It seems quite likely that may be the case. There is an illustration of a Funj sultan holding kaskara with notably flared quillon terminals, which I am trying to locate. Years ago I was communicating with Timothy Kendall, a noted archaeologist specializing on Sudan, and he had a huge collection of Mahdist period items including weapons, which was on tour at the time. I still have the manuscript for the collection and in our discussions he expressed his ideas that the flared scabbard tip came from Meriotic iconography, and felt the exaggerated flare on the quillons was of Funj origin.

While I have had notions of strong Mamluk influence in Sudanese arms, it does not seem the profound presence was as prevalent as I thought. There can be no doubt that much earlier traditional Islamic swords were known in Egypt and of course Sudan, so some degree of those influences must have been at hand. It does seem that through the Funj prism, there was some measure of embellishment and exaggeration with elements as we have noted.

It has always been interesting that North African broadswords, with the takouba to the west in Sahara, west Africa had its own distinct styling ; while the kaskara, to the east, had its own.

In Burton, he shows the kaskara but refers to it as a Danakil sword, not at all associating it with the Baghirmi 'kaskara', and presumes the blade tip is flared or spatulate, probably by seeing the flared scabbard. It would appear the true kaskara was extremely little known in 1884, as Burton with renowned knowledge on swords has had these oversights.

22nd August 2025, 12:34 AM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,535	Yuri, thank you for coming in, and these are most valid questions. What comes to mind right away is in reading on the Mahdist uprisings years ago, it is noted that in the very beginnings of the jihad, the native forces of the Mahdi were poorly armed, and very few had swords. In the initial conflicts, many only had sticks instead of swords, and they would either pick up the swords of the fallen who had them, or of course capture weapons from 'enemy' forces. It was not for some time that the Mahdi ordered swords to be made, though the emphasis was of course on rifles, ammunition and powder. Though most native tribes relied primarily on spears and various knife forms, it is true that despite numbers of swords in circulation in degree, the larger numbers of tribesmen did not have them in Sudan. It seems that to the west, in the Sahara and Sahel and into West Africa swords were more common to tribesmen, with Tuareg warriors in particular, commonly had broadswords, though mpst commonly preferred the spear. Dragging out my well worn copy of Burton ("Book of the Sword" 1884), on p.162: "...Denham and Clapperton inform us that the Knights of Malta exported great numbers of the straight double edged blades which they affected to Benghazi, in North Africa, where they were exchanged for bullocks. From the Tripolitan they were borne across the Sahara to Bornu, to Hausaland and to Kano , where they were remounted for the use of the population. Modern travellers note that the trade still continues at Kano, where some FIFTY THOUSAND blades were annually imported across the Meditteranean. Hence they are passed on to the Pule(Fulah) and Fulbe tribes. the Hausas, the Bornuese, and others traveling in the north western interior". From "Travels in Northern and Central Africa in 1822-24" Denham, Clapperton and Oudney, London, 1826. These accounts from this early in the 19th century would indicate that in this period, the import of blades into Africa was more a case of probably the tons of surplus that had been piled up in the stores of the Knights of Malta, which indeed probably had swords from the times of the crusades. The nature of these stockpiles may have more to do with Masonic lore than any sort of commercial venture, and with the obvious changes in weaponry, these were regarded as 'old junk'. That they were simply traded for necessities in these early advances in colonization suggests of course the negating of cost issues. What is indicative of possible hyperbole is the suggestion of 50,000 swords per year? While large numbers of blades might be seen en masse, without regular accounting processes over extended period it would be impossible to pronounce such statistics. These kinds of narratives wrought with adventure are of course susceptible to such exaggeration. The suggestion here is that these probably mostly old surplus blades entered trade routes more situated in Saharan, West African regions, and the farthest east was likely Bornu, but with Hausa the regional diffusion may have gone farther with thier nomadic character. However Henry Barth, in his "Travels in Central Africa 1849-55" (London 1875) notes the blades "...mostly made at Solingen", suggesting that by mid 19th century, there were production blades arriving in North Africa. (op. cit. Burton, p.162). He also notes that English and Styrian razors are also imported. Never sure what is meant by razors, whether weapon or shaving. It seems that there is mention of blades, some described as with Austrian double eagle on blades noted by Rudolf Slatin, prisoner of the Mahdi in 1883, suggesting at least some number of European blades in circulation at that time (in Khartoum). When the Mahdi died in 1885, and the Caliph took power, there was a huge advent in arms production which seems mostly centered at Omdurman. It seems many of the kaskara produced with the heavy thuluth acid etched calligraphy were Hausa produced rather than European/Solingen. There was also heavy production of other kaskara in several other locations in Sudan as well, and these had notable presence of Solingen blades. Clearly in these circumstances it was not a question of affordability, as these weapons were supplied to the Ansar, the forces for the Caliph. I am inclined to think that blades in this period into Sudanese areas were likely through Suakin, and into Shendy though the Egyptian conduit was of course also prevalent as Sudan was under Egyptian Ottoman control. It is doubtful that the kinds of numbers of blades purported in the earlier accounts into the Sahara were at hand. We do know that the Hausa were outstanding blacksmiths and were producing blades imitating European (Rodd, 1928) and these were mostly the blades with three central fullers (with two moons) which became so prevalent on kaskara. In illustrations, one of the Omdurman made thuluth etched blades, the familiar Hausa 'dukari' (moons) seen. These examples typically had brass crossguards as opposed to iron on most other kaskaras. (Briggs, 1965) A crocodile covered kaskara with distinctly European blade, probably Solingen, note cosmological motif. The crossguard resembles examples shown in Reed (1985) suggested from Darfur. While it is often suggested that crocodile covered weapons were made as souvenirs, there are many taken from the field at Omdurman, and ensuing conflicts of the time. Note: on Solingen, population statistics are often misleading as there are always outlying areas, districts etc. and of course, the numbers of shops, as well as outsourced component vendors, etc. are hard to number. The production numbers of blades for a single maker (his shop and workers) can be impressive. During the Thirty Years war, the guilds had to place restrictions on the numbers of blades produced by each maker to more evenly appropriate work. This was offset by the numbers of smiths who relocated into other locations. * on p.162 Burton notes, "few of the Baghirmi can afford 'kaskara' (swords)". This is the first known use of the term kaskara as far as I have found, and the term is completely unknown for the sword in Sudan as I discovered in years of researching. They refer to them as sa'if; though some tribes seem to use the term 'cross'. The term apparently entered the collectors lexicon with later writers. Attached Images Last edited by Jim McDougall; 22nd August 2025 at 02:33 AM.

22nd August 2025, 03:01 AM	#5
Edster Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 433	Jim, Thanks for updating the info on travelers accounts, etc. You and I along with others mainly Iain Norman have pretty well plowed these fields, but much remains for Pertinax to provide fresh eyes and to uncover what we may have missed. I wish him well. One issue I have been wondering about is DISTAL TAPER of the blade. The sword smiths in Kassala I observed developed this taper by eye and directed their forging assistants to strike the blade by touching it with a stick. I've read somewhere that a blade rolling mill was sold by a British firm to the solingen makers in the Mid-19 C (?). A rolling mill allows a worker to reduce the thickness and lengthen a billet to a sword shape and thickness by successively working the hot blade through rollers and reducing the space between rollers to a desired uniform thickness. BUT how was the distal taper made? Did they grind the taper to finish the blade? Thus, it seems to me that the close examination of the distal tapers of a known late 19C solingen blades vs those of known Kassala made blades COULD show differences in thickness of each place of manufacture. This approach could likely be naive and reflect my ignorance of factory machine and hand forged blades. I await this view to be hooted down (or not) by someone with specific knowledge. See the Sennari cross guard I wanted in Post #21 above Best regards, Ed Attached Images Last edited by Edster; Yesterday at 12:26 AM.

22nd August 2025, 03:16 AM	#7
TVV Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,711	Jim, is this the picture of a Funj ruler you were looking for? Attached Images

20th August 2025, 08:03 PM	#1
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,535	I agree Teodor, it was the blades that were arriving in volume through the various centers at the ports, then into the trade networks. While there may have been incidental arrival of fully assembled swords from Europe, typically it was the blades which were in demand and for local hilting. The fully assembled swords were those circulating among the Mamluks during their rule in Egypt, and the subsequent upheavals and relocation which were the strongest influence on the development of Sudanese kaskara hilts, as well described in Ed's excellent work. As noted, only a VERY tenacious researcher in Egypt and other Ottoman resources would be able to find records of these matters. Kinda wonder where Burckhardt got those statistical numbers. WAY curiouser and curiouser!!

21st August 2025, 05:28 PM	#2
Edster Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 433	TVV, Jim, Good observations. It could be that the "kaskara" began to get its distinctive style via the relative flat ends of the Sennariya cross guard. Likely made in Sennar by local blacksmiths and distributed to the markets and fitted say at Shendy market to the imported blades. Then distributed throughout the area as complete swords as many caravans, including to Dongola, came through Shendy. It's not as complex to forge as the perhaps later developed lozenge style Sammaniya we normally recognise. See discussion of the Sennariya guard from Page 9 of my Kaskara Crossguards paper and Figs. 8 & 9. (I can't extract the figures to illustrate.) Best, Ed Last edited by Edster; 21st August 2025 at 05:44 PM.

21st August 2025, 07:17 PM	#3
Pertinax Member Join Date: Dec 2023 Location: City by the Black Sea Posts: 275	A very interesting and confusing topic about the import of blades from Europe to Africa. The funniest thing is that I am currently studying and trying to figure out the import of blades to Central Africa, I will not “clutter” this topic, if I achieve any results I will create a new publication. The question arises, can old sources be trusted unconditionally? Burckhardt reports: - blades are brought from Solingen in Germany; about three thousand of them are sold annually in Cairo to southern traders. Jim reasonably asks the question - where do these statistics come from? Further in the text - these swords are of German manufacture and are sold to the Nubians by Egyptian merchants at a price of four to eight dollars apiece. Probably, he meant some “Spanish dollars”, in any case, be it Spanish, English, French or other European currency, this is a very serious amount even for Europe at that time, not to mention Africa. For example, when H. Barth received 2 Spanish dollars in a letter in 1851 while in Gummel, it was a very significant sum for him. That is why Burckhardt writes that those who can afford it own a sword. The question arises - how many remained in Sudan? Most travelers of that time in Africa write about blades from Solingen. In my opinion, this is a generalized concept of blades from Europe. Directly for Solingen, we managed to find out: 1846 - Population census, 6,127 people live in Solingen. 1853 - The "first" industrial steam engine in Solingen was installed at the Henckels plant. I was unable to find out how many blades Solingen manufactories could produce in the first half of the 19th century. But not all products were sold to Africa, there were large orders from Europe. In general, questions, questions, questions.

22nd August 2025, 09:20 AM	#8
Pertinax Member Join Date: Dec 2023 Location: City by the Black Sea Posts: 275	[QUOTE=Jim McDougall;299271] He also notes that English and Styrian razors are also imported. Never sure what is meant by razors, whether weapon or shaving. Henry Barth writes specifically about razors, they were in great demand in the Sahel, in his travels razors were a very important item for gifts and exchange. Best regards, Yuri