Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

236 III. Судан и его соседи in the middle, an effect likely caused by wearing off the central part of the blade as a result of fighting and subsequent sharpening of the edge. Such a sword is designed mostly for cutting, and only secondly for thrusting, not “for cutting and above all for thrusting” as David Alexander considered 1 : its end is not sharply pointed, as it is character- istic of the swords specially designed for thrusting. This corresponds to a general opinion of the 19th century European travellers in the Arabic lands who stressed the Arabs’ luck of skill in thrusting: “The Badawin boast greatly of sword-play; but it is apparently confined to delivering a tremendous slash, and to jumping away from the return-cut instead of parrying either with sword or shield... None of these Orientals knows the use of the point which characterises the highest school of swords- manship”. 2 Such a typical contemptuous attitude was also expressed by Wyman Bury: “They are none of them good swordsmen as a rule and do not seem to have much idea of guarding or delivering thrusts.” 3 This is quite understandable, though, as the early modern European school of swordsmanship (gradually developed under the specific conditions of West European warfare) was based on thrusting. As a result, even the most open-minded Europeans could not imagine that some other approach may have a right to exist or might make any sense, hence the Arab ‘cutting’ tradition was interpreted by them as another manifesta- tion of the ‘uncivilized’ Orient. The preconception that the swordsmanship as an equivalent to modern fencing based on thrusting continued to exist in the 20th cen- tury. Thus, a recent traveller to Darfur, Michael Asher, remembering his former fencing achievements at Stamford School, exclaimed after a Sudanese boy demonstrated “a crushing cut against the wooden prop” 1 Alexander D. The Arts of War. P. 13. 2 R. Burton. Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Meccah. London, 1893 (1st ed. 1855) Vol. II. P. 107. He was the author of a book on sword drill (A New System of Sword Exercise for Infantry. London, 1876) and The Book of the Sword. London, 1884 (discussed below). The same attitude can be seen in Tavernier’s book about India [J. B. Tavernier. Travels in India. London, 1889: cited in Rawson P. S. The Indian Sword. London, 1968. P. 23]. 3 Bury W. The land of Uz. London, 1911. P. 296: cited in Elgood R. The Arms and Armour of Arabia. P. 22.