Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

279 Alexander S. Matveev. A Case of Survival of an Early Medieval Straight Sword... Sudanese sword — presumably because of an almost total lack of body armour among the Sudanese warriors — is lighter and thinner than its early medieval prototype, as can be clearly seen from the comparison with pre-Mongol swords preserved in the Topkapi Saray museum 1 (Fig. 17). The latter have a sort of central rib, being a smooth rhombus in cross-section, thus thicker and less flexible than their Sudanese counterparts. So, we cannot completely accept North’s statement, that “the Arab version survived in its straight form in North Africa and the Sudan until this century in the form of the Sudanese sword known as a ‘ Kaskara ’. The straight quillons and blade differ only slightly from their 13th- and 14th-century Arab forebears.” 2 An actual comparison shows that both blade and quillons are quite different, only the general idea of straight double-edged blade remained the same. Nevertheless, it is obviously a continuation of the older pattern, rooted in the continuity in social and, correspondingly, military system. And a last remark. All the above ‘technical’ military reasons behind adopting curved sabre or preserving (or further development) of a straight sword indicate merely a general tendency, a set of objective factors which influenced the choice made by a given culture, but not predetermined it. There are many other reasons behind adopting a particular type of weaponry, and the “fashion” is by no means the least one. 3 Thus, it is often difficult to determine the exact reason behind adopting of a certain weapon by a given society, as we can see on the example of Morocco, Oman, and Central-Northern Arabia, where situation was in many respects similar to the Sudanese one, but the choice these cultures finally made was quite different. Nevertheless, the practical fitness of the weapon for a particular military task always played an important role, which cannot be superseded 1 A. R. Zaky. Medieval Arab Arms. Pl. 206–208. 2 North A. Op. cit. P. 30. 3 For instance, what was behind an increasing popularity of the shashka blades in the late 19th — early 20th C. Arabia? Technical quality? Corre- spondence to some major requirements of the Bedouin warfare? Or a result of some general Caucasian influence due to the mass ‘Circassian’ migration to the Ottoman Empire in the late 18th–19th C.? Or simply a fashion? More likely, all these factors together.