Toubou Arm Short Sword
Toubou Arm Short Sword
Toubou / Daza
Tibesti - Ennedi - Ouaddaï Regions (Chad) - Wadai Sultanate - Sultanate of Darfur (Chad - Western Sudan)
Late 19th century (ca. 1875 - 1900)
Steel, leather, iron, crocodile skin
Blade: 43,2cm
Hilt & Blade: 55,9cm
Hilt, Blade, Sheath: 56,5cm
Collection Date: 2021
Collection Number: 228
Ex. Arnold Crane Collection: Chicago, Illinois, USA
The arm dagger of the Toubou People of Chad, associated primarily with the Tibesti, Ennedi, and Ouaddaï regions. These daggers are used by both Teda and Daza of the Toubou, worn on the arm. This one with larger proportions as more of a short sword than dagger.
The straight steel blade is double- edged and tapers to a point. Romboid shaped raised center with a pair of two shallow outside fullers. The blade is very solid and has a good weight. Decorated with punch dot zig- zag incisions. Hilt of intricately woven leather strips with the center grip of crocodile skin. The pommel, known as a "skullcrusher", is made of iron in a rounded triangular form. The sheath of tooled leather and crocodile skin with a solid leather arm loop.
These short swords come in a few different styles depending on locality, this style more Southern and related to the Daza or Goran rather than the Northern Teda tribes. They were found throughout Chad extending into the Darfur and Kordofan regions of Sudan, likely from trans- Salehian trade routes or during the Mahdist movement in the late 19th century.
A near identical example can be seen in Dr. Wilhelm Junker's travels in Africa 1875 -1886 from Darfur.
[1] Dr. Wilhelm Junker: Dr. W. Junker's Travels in Africa 1875 - 1886; Bd.1, S.557 - from Darfur
[2] https://www.penn.museum/collections/object/155796
[3] https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Af-2680-a
[4] http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/item.php?id=5567
[5] https://african-weapons.com/gallery?tubu-region-43-5-cm-dagger-43-cm