Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

243 Alexander S. Matveev. A Case of Survival of an Early Medieval Straight Sword... blade itself (e. g. the famous Moroccan nimсha , discussed below, had several variants of blades, absolutely different, but retained the same name, obviously, due to the similarity in the hilt’s shape). If we put aside the decoration, the Sudanese hilts are quite uniformed. The handle has always a precisely cylindrical form, only the covering material differs. A common sword of the Mahdist era has the grip bound with narrow leather strips (Fig. 5) or, sometimes, covered with snake-skin, like those from Edinburgh and Egerton collections mentioned above. The richly decorated examples from the following ‘Ali Dinar period (1898–1916) are covered with silver sheets 1 (Fig. 6) or even gilded, like amag- nificent sword of Sultan ‘AliDinar chosen to decorate the cover of an Oriental arms album; 2 though some sword owners were ready to accept a less expensive tinned brass imitation of silver. 3 It should be noted that the very idea of gilded hilts is of a late origin, as the gold became ‘fashion- able’ in Arabia and neighbouring lands only by the end of 19thC. Before that, the local Muslims generally preferred silver, thus following the example of the Prophet who, according to his servant Anas b. Malik, possessed a sword named Ṣ am ṣ āma , which had a silver hilt. 4 On ‘AliDinar’s period swords, themetal coveringof thehiltwas usually embossed with diamond (Fig. 6) or stars and comets (Fig. 7) ornamental patterns. The embossed diamonds, in addition to a decoration effect, also 1 North A. Op. cit. Pl. 23a; Elgood R. Op. cit. Pl. 2.12. 2 Ricketts H., Missillier P. Splendeur des Armes Orientales. Paris, 1988. 3 North A. Op. cit. Pl. 23c, mentions “traces of tinning”. Possibly, tin originally covered all of the hilt, thus imitating silver covering. 4 Al-Munawī . Vol. I. P. 193: cited by A. R. Zaki. Medieval Arab Arms // Islamic Arms and Armour. Ed. by Elgood. London, 1979. P. 203. Fig. 6 . Hilt of a sword of ‘Ali Dinar, Darfur, Sudan, dated 1316 and 1320 AH (1899 and 1903)