Kaskara

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Kaskara
COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Zwaard met houten greep TMnr 5939-1a.jpg
Information
Weapon type: sword
Use: Weapon, professional weapon
Distribution: Sudan, Eritrea and partly Chad
Lists on the subject

The Kaskara is a sword that is mainly found in Sudan and adjacent areas. The origins of the Kaskaras go back to the 8th century, the time of the Islamic expansion . The caskara has lost its function as a weapon . In this region, however, it is part of the living tradition .

description

blade

The Kaskara has a straight, double-edged blade . With some Kaskaras the blade tapers slightly towards the point, with others the sides run parallel and only form a point at the end. The blades have different types of fillets ; there are variants with one wide or several narrow chamfers.

Most of the blades are from European production, few are of local origin. New blades of the 20th century were forged locally, for example from old leaf springs from automobiles . They are of higher quality than the early native ones who broke in battle, but they do not match the quality of the blades that were imported earlier.

Decorative symbols are attached using hallmarks . Arabic inscriptions such as Quranic verses or religious oaths of loyalty are etched .

vessel

The hilt has a straight quillons , which gives the sword a cross-shaped appearance. The bars of the parry mostly widen to the sides. Two noses protrude from the parry, parallel to the blade towards the point. They act as blade catchers .

The traditional parrying elements are made from several parts and connected to one another by fire welding . In the middle of the 20th century this method changed. Since then, the guard has been made from one piece. For this purpose, a rectangular flat iron is cut out at the corners so that noses are formed. An incision is made in the middle of the iron for the blade. Two noses are bent towards the blade, the other two form the crossguards. In contrast to the traditional forms, the crossguards cannot be shaped like a fan because the flat iron has too little material.

A distinctive feature of the European swords is the pommel in the form of a disc.

Scabbard

The scabbard is a high quality leather work. It consists of reddish colored sheepskin or goatskin . In addition, decorations made of reptile leather (from snakes , lizards or crocodiles ) can be found.

A characteristic of the Kaskara is that the sheath widens significantly at the tip.

The scabbards are lined on the inside with thin wood . New productions use cardboard .

Occurrence and use

King of the Sultanate of Sannar , around 1821
Attack of the dervishes with spears and kaskaras during the Mahdi uprising
Emir Naaman, a leader of the Baggara , with a kaskara.
A boy with kaskaras doing traditional dance

The Cascara is common in a large area. It stretches from the Eritrean and Sudanese coasts of the Red Sea across all of Sudan to Chad .

Although the lance and spear were the primary weapons of the cavalry and infantry , the cascara conferred a higher prestige. For some men it was the most valuable possession they carried with them both in peacetime and in war.

The Kaskara was wielded with one hand and primarily used as a cutting weapon . It was effective; one powerful blow could fatally injure the enemy.

The strap attached to the scabbard is worn over the shoulder so that the sword is with the handle forward, between the arm and the upper body. When riding camels , the sword hung on the saddle.

history

origin

The origin of the Kaskaras lies in the darkness of history. Because of their cross-shaped vessel, the kaskaras resemble European swords. In the 19th century, African explorers like Samuel White Baker based this correspondence on the influence of the Crusaders . The Crusaders were active in Egypt and in 1183 Renaud de Châtillon and his army plundered the coast of the Red Sea down to the Nubian Aidhab . There is no evidence of the use of European swords outside of Egypt.

It is more likely that the cascara descended from the early Arabic swords. These also had straight blades. The typical curved shape did not emerge until the 15th century. In the middle of the 8th century, during the Islamic expansion , Arab tribes crossed the Sahara and may have influenced the Sudanese blacksmiths. Another assumption is that the swords were brought by the first Sudanese pilgrims when they were on their way back from Mecca .

From the 15th century, European blades came to Africa via the ports of the Mediterranean or the Atlantic . First the Portuguese set up trading posts in Mauritania . It is likely that European blades were not used to build kaskaras until the 16th century. At that time, the import of blades from Spain , Italy and Germany increased significantly. Vessels and sheaths were produced in trade and craft centers such as al-Fashir in Sudan. There the blades got their decorations. Local blades were sometimes forged with counterfeit European hardware brands. A precise chronological classification is difficult. Most of the oldest surviving Kaskaras date from the 19th century; some specimens have older blades.

Mahdi uprising

During the Mahdi uprising (1881–1899) the sword was an important symbol for the followers of Muhammad Ahmad . The Ansar avoided modern firearms and used sword and lance in the tradition of the Prophet Mohammed . They passed on captured firearms to the non-Arab jihadiyya . Mahdi commanders such as Osman Digna boosted domestic production of the blades in the 19th century. Since these broke in a few isolated cases, the captured Turkish, Egyptian and English weapons were often used. Because the Mahdi fighters knew the weaknesses of their native blades, they carried a shorter secondary weapon, such as a short sword.

The battles of the Mahdists and the Ethiopians at the Battle of Gallabat (1889) were the last in which swords were used as primary weapons on both sides. At the latest in the Battle of Omdurman (1898) the military importance of the Kaskara was lost. In this battle, the Anglo-Egyptian army was armed with machine guns, so that they crushed the Mahdists.

20th and 21st centuries

Although the kaskara has lost its military usefulness, it remained deeply anchored in the Arab-Sudanese culture and is still made in the traditional way. As in the pre-industrial era, this is done with a sense of proportion . The locals satisfy the local demand, including that of the tourists . Occasionally the Sudanese blacksmiths use their artistry to imitate European swords from the 17th century.

In the rural areas of Darfur , the cascara is still part of the traditional costume of men, in eastern Sudan it was worn by the bedscha until the end of the 20th century. Nowadays the swords are occasionally used in wedding ceremonies, for example when the groom's father gives his son a sword. Also, sword dances , the stylized combat skills show are still visible. This tradition is seldom upheld in the cities.

Related weapons

In parts of North and West Africa , west of the range of the Kaskaras, a closely related sword of the Tuareg and other ethnic groups, the Takouba, occurs . Both swords have the same origin and have a straight blade with a cross-shaped hilt. The Takouba differs in the blade, which is tapered from the hilt towards the tip, in the significantly thicker quillons, in the way it is carried on the hip and in the lack of widening of the sheath. The Kaskara has the feature of the widened sheath in common with the Mandinka sword from West Africa.

literature

Web links

Commons : Kaskara  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Spring: African arms and armor , 1993, p. 41.
  2. ^ Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 40.
  3. ↑ Spring: African arms and armor , 1993, pp. 41-42.
  4. ^ A b Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 12.
  5. ^ Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 32.
  6. ^ Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, pp. 40-41.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Spring: African Art in Detail , 2009, p. 106.
  8. ^ Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, pp. 39-41.
  9. ↑ a b North: Swords of Islam , 1989, p. 142.
  10. ^ A b Moore-Morris: Sudanese Weapons of the late 19th Century , 1995.
  11. ^ A b Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 39.
  12. ↑ Spring: African arms and armor , 1993, pp. 41, 104.
  13. ↑ a b c d e Spring: African arms and armor , 1993, p. 42.
  14. ^ A b Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 36.
  15. ^ Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 34.
  16. ^ A b Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 38.
  17. ^ Baker: The Nile tributaries of Abyssinia , 1867, p. 169.
  18. ^ North: Swords of Islam , 1989, p. 139.
  19. ↑ a b c Spring: African arms and armor , 1993, pp. 40-42.
  20. ^ Searcy: The Formation of the Sudanese Mahdist State , 2010, pp. 57-58.
  21. ^ Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 24.
  22. ^ A b Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 37.
  23. ^ Hunley: The Social Economics of Small Craft Production , 1984, p. 7.
  24. ^ Osman: The sword in East Sudan- Changing from Historic Weapon to Man's Finery 2013.
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 20, 2015 .