I went to the San Antonio Museum of Art yesterday, It was a nice surprise "I wasn't expecting to see swords" to see 1 katana in the scabbard, 5 Shamshirs from the 17th and 18th century in excellent condition and what I thought was a European cruciform sword but it said "Sudanese" sword and some other various ancient bladed weapons.

Curiously when I next had access to the internet I looked up a bit of info and it seems to be accurate.

Here is a dramatic, probably fictional battle scene that was painted by someone, but you can see these swords in the hands of the sudanese, the guy on horseback is pretty much dressed like a classic medieval knight.

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This is pretty much exactly what the San Antonio museum had

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This is fascinating, clearly these Africans were using weapons that were influenced by Medieval European contact sometime in the past far before this revolution which took place from 1881 to 1899 called the Mahdist war. Almost right into the 20th century, there were cultures still using these swords.

It didn't do them very well though, they were up against machine guns and had tremendous losses.
But against bayonet charges, swords are not so far out of place.

Here is another one
That's actually a very attractive sword. Their scabbards were definitely their style though.

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That is a painting by Richard Caton Woodville Jr. depicting the charge of the 21st Lancers at Omdurman. The sword is called a kaskara. Another related sword type is the takouba. Check out this nice site for more: http://takouba.org/

If you are interested in the use of the sword in (British) colonial warfare in the 19th century, you should get a copy of Swordsmen of the British Empire by D.A. Kinsley.

Quote:

Included is an introductory essay covering the weapons and martial arts of the sources by historical fencing instructor Matt Easton. This is the 3rd revised and enlarged edition (2013) of the British Sword Fighters series: a unique and comprehensive collection of combat narratives of, and commentaries on, the sword fighting and fighters, swords, and swordsmanship of British conflicts from the 17th century to the 20th. With numerous illustrations. (Slightly smaller print has enabled the inclusion of much new material without increasing the number of pages that were in the previous edition.) This work includes at a massive selection of original accounts which give the reader a broad insight into what hand-to-hand combat in the age of Empire was actually like. Many of the themes covered, such as the cut and thrust debate, carry across historical periods and weapons. Numerous kinds of combat at covered, covering all the principle hand weapons of the period, including sabres, lances, bayonets, broadswords, smallswords and spears. These sources also give a great insight into other national martial traditions and weapons, including Sudanese 'dervishes', Indian swordsmen, Gurkha warriors and Zulu soldiers.

I heard from a collector how hadendoa blacksmiths get the metal for the blades. Since the 19. th. Century the families begun to steal trainrails, but in the 20. th. Century they attacked trucks for the leaf springs.

Of course the story can be true but I don't know when France from the west or UK from the north begun to build railroads into the Sudan.

As the owner of the takouba.org website I should probably add a few comments (thanks for linking it by the way Jonathan, I'm always happy to see it's useful). :)

Yes, Timo is correct, the influence is more likely to be Arab and Mamluk with respect to hilt of the kaskara. The main source for arms and armour flowing into Sudan was via Egypt. On the takouba side it's a similar story but with different geographical influences. For more on straight bladed Islamic sword this is a nice thread: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=17520

Of course from a certain perspective there was European influence, in so much as many of the blades originated there. Both 19th century trade blade and blades from earlier periods as well.

Both kaskara and takouba are still made to this day, mainly as an accessory of traditional dress and for ceremonial use. As Henrik points out, modern steel sources are typically leaf springs from vehicles. The railway steel is also true - the British rail line to Khartoum was completed in 1899.

It's nice to see these under discussion here. Both are rather long lived types and give a fascinating window into African kingdoms such as Sennar, Darfur, the Hausa kingdoms and Bornu.

Here's a nice example held by the British Museum and attributed to a Darfur ruler from the mid 18th century.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_t...sword.aspx

I'm also attaching a neat image of a couple of cavalrymen from Kordofan circa 1910.

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I was hoping to make a trip down from Dallas to San Antonio this summer, since I've never had the chance to visit the museums there; this thread is more encouragement to do so. :-)

I have both a kaskara and takouba. I just got the kaskara earlier this year and haven't yet assembled a costume for it, though I have prepared notes to do so.
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1885MahdistNasir.html

http://www.forensicfashion.com/1885MahdistNasirSword.html
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I do have a Tuareg kit for my takouba, which I've used twice since last year. Popular with both bellydancers and camels.
http://www.forensicfashion.com/1899TuaregWarrior.html

Iain, thanks for sharing your site. I wasn't aware of it before but will make use of it going forward.

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Iain,
Would the Fulani warriors of Nigeria also have used cruciform swords similar to the takouba?

Thank you,
Jonathan

To add: one of the better books on this kind of thing is Spring's African Arms & Armour, http://www.myArmoury.com/books/item.1560983175.html

AFAIK, there are some Osprey books which cover the same content, at least partially, but I don't know about details and quality.

Wow.. this one wouldn't look out of place in the hands of a Viking!


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As for the fun you can have with African Viking swords, see http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16198

Its worth noting that the African smiths often carved into the blades known European brand marks and images as a way to sell off their swords as actual European imports, which were valued much higher than the African made blades.