Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

231 Alexander S. Matveev. A Case of Survival of an Early Medieval Straight Sword... 2nd half (mostly, the last quarter) of the 19thC., as they originated fromthe armies of al-Mahdiyya movement in Sudan. 2 Alongside this group, another distinctive batchof the early20thC. swords of the time of Sultan Ali Dinar (1898–1916) should be mentioned, with his personal highly decorated swords on the first place (some of them were his own possessions, others were produced to be presented as gifts for high-ranking individuals). In 1880s–1890s, during the fighting against al-Mahdi and his followers — especially in 1889, after the defeat at Toski of an invasion of Egypt organized by al-Mahdi’s successorKhalifa; 3 and later in 1896–1898, during the Sudanese campaigns of Lord Kitchener culmi- nated in the final defeat of al-Mahdiyya troops in the battle of Omdurman on 2September 1898,—a lot of the capturedSudaneseweapons appeared in the markets of Aswan and Luqsor in Upper Egypt. And one of the most common item there were the above straight swords. They could be easily purchased both in Egypt and Sudan in the late 19th — early 20th C., and even later. A number of them were brought by colonial officers (usually as trophies) and travellers to Britain, where they remained in private collections, or were later given as gifts (or sold by the relatives of 1 On the Amarar faction of the Beja tribal group see: Sandars G. E. R. The Amarar // Sudan Notes and Records . Vol. 18, No. 2. 1935. P. 195–220. 2 On theMahdist movement in general see: Holt P. M. TheMahdist State in the Sudan 1881–1898: A Study of Its Origins, Development and Overthrow. Oxford: Clarenden Press, 1970. On the Mahdist army and military system see an excellent overview by Stephane Pradines in the first part of otherwise irrelevant paper Pradines S., Khorasani M. M. Sufi inWar: Persian Influence on African Weaponry in 19th Century Mahdist Sudan // JAAS . Vol. XXII, No 5. 2018. P. 254–258. 3 Egerton, Lord of Tatton. A description of Indian and Oriental Armour. London, 1896. P. 156. Fig. 2. A Beja warrior (from the Amarar tribe 1 )