My Haladie

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Lew

Yes I also say Sudanese but I have never seen one with a brass hilt? Funny I have never seen a photo of any Sudanese warrior carrying one?

It is interesting that there were Mahdist kaskaras which sometimes had brass rather than iron crossguards. I was once told that this quite possibly could have had something to do with the superstitions that existed in Saharan regions and probably extended into Sudan concerning iron. While iron had connections with death, the converse was true of brass. It would be interesting to look further into that perspective....as to the use of the haladie, I am under the impression they were status type weapons to ranking tribal figures and the hilts were as noted, often horn or even ivory.
They may have been a symbol of rank, and used in the manner of the alem during battle, more research required