It would indeed be most important to have these inscriptions translated as this would establish more toward the dating of the blade by the context of the wording and other information. Clearly this is an important blade, which has heirloom connection as Teodor has noted.
While not necessarily the oldest blade from a kaskara, and may well be earlier than 18th century, it is certainly among the often extremely old blades which made their way into Egypt and Sudan.
Ed, your observations on these cross guards and the stylistic characteristics of these hilts are among the most important references toward the proper identification of kaskara's. The Fung influences from Sennar are indeed very notable with the flared terminals.
Well noted on the European trophy swords from the Crusades which were in Alexandria, and it is interesting that the Mamluks were largely the predominant Islamic forces during many of the Crusades. The Mamluks of course were the rulers in Egypt until their overthrow in the 16th c.
The comparison of the broadswords and mail armor seen by Victorian writers were of course romantically placed in the sensationalized accounts, and were taken quite literally. Ironically many of the blades, actually did have early European origins, and had been coming into North Africa from trade networks which brought them included with trade blades of early years.
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