Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

250 III. Судан и его соседи Though definitely not Arabic, the word, indeed, does exist in the sub-Saharan Africa — in the Kanuri language of the Lake Chad region, and means “sword”. 1 However, surprisingly enough, the Sudanese Arabs and Africans alike have no idea that their swords are named kaskara (perhaps, except a fewOmdurman dealers who used to interact with the tourists some of whommay know the term). In short, the term is not in use in Sudan: neither nowadays, nor in the recent past when Michael Asher was travelling in Darfur and purchased a sword for self-protection. 2 When Reed interacted with his interloc- utors in El Fasher in 1984–1985, 3 the kaskara was simply called in Arabic ‘ seif kassalawi ’, which means “Kassala sword” (referring to the main centre of kaskara manufacturing in Sudan which seems to supply the whole country). One might expect, though, that this term had been in use in the Mahdist times when a bulk of kaskara s was brought to the UK as trophies of war. However, Egerton who introduced the British reader to these arms, just named them ‘swords’. The same is true regarding records/ catalogues of the trophy weapons brought to the UK at the end of the 19th — early 20th C. from Sudan. So, where and when the term first appeared? It looks like the first instance of a published picture of the Sudanese sword under this name was the famous encyclopaedia of weaponry by G. C. Stone. 4 As quite convincingly argued Iain Norman, the modern use of the term kaskara is owned to this Stone’s work, as it has been widely used by arms collectors and experts as a standard reference book, becoming “a bible for arms and armour collecting”. 5 This is hardly surprising given the fact that the interest to the kaskara s prevails not 1 See details in: Norman Iain. Kaskara Terminology // [Internet resource] African Arms . 8 October 2023. URL: http://iainnorman.com/ kaskara -termi- nology (accessed: 27.01.2024). 2 No term kaskara was used in his book, just “sword”. [Asher M. In Search of the Forty Days Road. Harlow: Longman, 1984. P. 63]. 3 Reed G. S. Kaskara from Northern Darfur. P. 171. 4 Stone G. C. A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor. New York: Jack Brussel, 1934. P. 339. Fig. 425. 5 Norman Iain. Kaskara Terminology.