A gilded and silver-mounted sword (kaskara) of Sultan 'Ali Dinar, Sudan, dated 1326 AH/ 1908-09 AD
Auction Closed
October 23, 01:24 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
the double-edge blade of broad flattened form with ridges at the forte, both sides engraved with inscriptions in Arabic, talismanic numbers and letters, the broad cross-guard with square-section quillons flared at the ends incised with further calligraphy and a tughra, the gilded cylindrical grip decorated with a raised lattice pattern, the silver-mounted pommel of disc form with incised geometric bands
113.4cm. long
Private collection, Ireland, since the early 20th century.
inscriptions:
On one side of the blade:
Qur'an, chapters IV (al-nisa'), part of verse 78; chapter LXII (al-Jumu'ah), part of verse; chapter LXI (al-saff), part of verse 13 and a couplet from the qasidah al-Burdah with the date 1236 (1820-21) (one section unidentified).
On the other side of the blade -
The name, Al-Malik al-Sultan 'Ali Dinar, and his genealogy back to Al-Sultan Musa, with the date 1326 (1908-09):
'al-Malik al-Sultan 'Ali Dinar ibn al-Sultan Zakariya ibn al-Sultan Muhammad al-Fadl al-Sultan ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Rashid ibn al-Sultan Ahmad Bakr ibn al-Sultan Ishaq ibn al-Sultan Musa, may God help him, Amen 1326 (1908-09)'.
On the roundels - the shahadah with the names of the Four Orthodox Caliphs in the corners.
In the squares - talismanic numbers and letters.
On the quillons:
'al-Sultan ‘Ali Dinar ibn al-Sultan Zakariya 1329 (1911-12)', and a tughra with the name ‘Ali Dinar and the names of the Four Orthodox Caliphs in the corners.
Sultan 'Ali Dinar was the last ruler of the Keira or Fur Sultanate of Darfur in western Sudan. The Sultanate had come to power in the mid-seventeenth century. 'Ali Dinar inherited the throne of from his father, Sultan Zakariya, in 1893. His reign lasted from 1898 to 1916 when he was killed whilst battling the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium troops who had invaded Darfur.
Swords of this form with straight, broad blades, cruciform guards and disc-shaped pommels, known as kaskaras, are from the Sahara region, particularly from Sudan. The form of the hilts is based on European swords carried by knights in the Middle Ages. Kaskara swords with gilded grips, such as the present example, are relatively rare. An example with gilded lattice-form grip and cross-guard, dated to circa 1900-06, is in the collection of the British Museum, London (inv. no.Af1932,1014.1). A more elaborate kaskara, with the gilded grip bearing Arabic inscriptions in repoussé is in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, published in D. Alexander, The Arts of War. Arms and Armour of the 7th to 19th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, Vol.XXI, London, 1992, cat. no.144, pp.210, 212-3. A silver-mounted kaskara sword dated to 1898-9 is published in Robert Hales, Islamic and Oriental Arms and Armour: A Lifetime's Passion, 2013, no.501, p.206.
Another comparable silver-mounted sword belonging to Sultan 'Ali Dinar, and dated to 1898-99 and 1902-03 AD, sold in these rooms, 5 October 2011, lot 317. A further example dated 1333 AH/1914-15 AD sold at Christie's London, 27 April 2017, lot 180.
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