Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

253 Alexander S. Matveev. A Case of Survival of an Early Medieval Straight Sword... indeed. The Dankali lived in the northern part of Djibouti and south- ern part of Eritrea, i. e. slightly to the south of Sudan, thus they might have influenced the Sudanese tradition, or rather they simply belonged to the same historical area (which also included Ethiopia, despite its increasing use of the sickle-shaped blades in the 19thC.), where straight blades preserved — as well as a general idea of cross-shaped hilt. Why Stone decided that Sudanese swords are exactly the kaskara of Bagirmi, is the most enigmatic part of the story. Though Norman suggested a possible variant that the term might be brought to Sudan by the nomadic Baggara Arabs of Darfur who have been migrating far and wide in Sahel, as far as Kamerun and northern Nigeria, thus interacted with the Bagirmi and theoretically could borrow the word Fig. 14. Bagirmi ‘kingdom’; Takouba and Kaskara dominated areas; European blades trade routes in Sahara-Sahel zone