Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

244 III. Судан и его соседи increased the firmness of grasping the handle, as the metal covering was much slipperier than more traditional leather or snakeskin, especially given the hot climate of Sudan. In fact, predominantly flatmetal-covered handles of themodern kaskara s, broadly imitating the ‘Ali Dinar’s period fashion, indicate their ceremonial rather thanmilitary use. Formore detail on the decoration patterns of this type of sword, see Hunley’s research. 1 The pommel is uniformly disk-like (Persian-style two discs variants are rare, and always ornate silver/metal plated), one to two cm thick, covered — in accordance with the grip decoration — either with leather or with thin metal sheet; metal-covered pommels are normally also topped with a pin-like knob. The most typical part, however, is the guard. The iron quillons are straight, smooth flattened rhombus or hexagon in cross-section, slightly broadened at the ends or considerably flared. 2 But what reallymake them look peculiarly “Crusading” and giving them — as Ewart Oakeshott put it — “cross-hilted medieval shape”, 3 is a languet — a strip of metal extending from the centre of the guard down the blade, often being rather long (see Figs. 5–8). The shape of the languet follows that of the quillons, being usually narrower near the guard and slightly broader at the end. Altogether it produces an effect of a semi-cross shape (the ver- sion on Fig. 6 with notably flared guards and languet looks particularly cross-like), which was especially against the backdrop of pre-modern Arabic, Persian and Turkish sword hilts, which had two pointed trian- gle-like “extensions” — one going down the blade, the second up the grip—composing together with the guards a rhombus-like shape (Fig. 9). 3. Scabbard The scabbard is also very characteristic. It has normally been made of wood covered by tooled leather or serpent skin, 4 though later 20th C. variants, instead of wood, usemore convenient cardboard. Ornamental 1 Hunley E. The Sudanese Kaskara Sword in Silver Dress. See also: Anderson J. et al. Royal Regalia: a sword of the last Sultan of Darfur, Ali Dinar. 2 For more details see Hunley E. Kaskara Cross-guards/Quillons . 3 EwartOakeshott. TheArchaeology ofWeapons.Woodbridge, 1960. P. 112. 4 E.g., Egerton. Op. cit. No. 191.