Arm Dagger
Arm Dagger
Mahdist / Nubian
Upper Egypt, Khedivate of Egypt (Egypt) - Khartoum, Mahdist Sudan (Khartoum, Sudan)
Late 19th century (ca. 1880 - 1900)
Steel, wood, copper or brass
Blade: 14,9cm
Hilt & Blade: 23,5cm
Hilt, Blade, Sheath: -cm
Collection Date: 2019
Collection Number: 96
Ex. Oriental Arms: Haifa, Israel (2019)
A Sudanese arm dagger from Northeastern Sudan to the Khartoum area during the Mahdist period. This type of arm dagger was worn with the blade facing upwards hidden on the left arm. In the style of the Upper Nile Nubian type stretching from Aswan in the Upper Nile Egypt to Dongola to the capital city of Omdurman in the Nile Valley.
The straight steel blade is double- edged, flaring outward toward the point. The hilt carved from a thick hardwood with flared ends, the reverse side having a two-tone coloration. The central grip is bound in metal wire, of copper or brass. Missing the pommel cap where a coin previously resided from the patina. As common with these type of arm daggers, the coin likely consisted of an Egyptian Qirsh of Abdul Hamid II. Missing its sheath. There is a high probability that this dagger was a Mahdist battlefield pickup from the Eastern Sudan Campaigns.
[1] http://oriental-arms.co.il/item.php?id=8797
[2] W. O. Oldman, “Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographic Specimens”, List No. 87 Vol. vii.; Item No. 14 (1660)
[3] https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-75501
[4] https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-123985
[5] https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-67672
[6] https://prm.ox.ac.uk/collections-online#/item/prm-object-67671
[8] https://www.weltmuseumwien.at/object/?detailID=678332&offset=279&lv=list
[9] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af-2679-a
[10] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af1961-07-1-a
[11] http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/item.php?id=3774
[12] http://africanarms.com/gallery?nubian-dagger-23-4-cm