Takouba with five fullers

[Marc M.]

My most recent takouba, a simple one but a blade with five fullers. A native made blade of good quality with a little flex; still quite sharp. Short narrow handle, oval pommel made of steel/iron, brass and copper. Length of blade : 847 mm, width at handle : 45 mm, oal : 985 mm. Comments are always welcome.
Best regards
Marc

[Marc M.]

A lot of viewers but no comments. Probably not interesting enough, although five fullers you don't come across very often.
Best regards
Marc

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Marc M.

A lot of viewers but no comments. Probably not interesting enough, although five fullers you don't come across very often.

Hi Marc,

I've had it many times that a post received a lot of views but got.no single comment for a long time. But the many views show that it's interesting but people don't know what they should comment on.
I for my part like takoubas but know not enough about them to give a comment.
What do you think about how old it is? Mid. 20th century with an older blade?

Regards,
Detlef

[Edster]

Marc,

I have a kaskara with five fullers. A man at the Kassala sword market said in c.1983 that the smith who made it has seen another sword with five fullers and just wanted to see if he could make one as well. At least three other "fivers" kaskaras have surfaced on this Forum. My guess is that your takouba smith made it as an artistic/technical challenge with no other significance.

Regards,
Ed

[TVV]

Perhaps the 5 fullers were a status thing, or just a smith's attempt to demonstrate his skills. But such takouba do exist, even if not common.

[Edster]

Here's a section from my Kaskara paper on Fullers. I didn't include the pictured. The five fullered Kaskara is called the Suliman Mukamas.Don't know about anything related to Takoubas.

Quote: Cut & Pasted:
Suliman Mukhammas
• This type has five forged fullers of graduated lengths that extend about a third of the way down the
blade and is not included in Clark’s topology.) Khamsa is the number “five” in Arabic.
This is a rare blade form with only five examples having been revealed so far. Two have a Sun
symbol at the end of the fullers. The sun does not appear to be a maker's mark, but it likely has some
unknown symbolic meaning. The informant called these Suliman Mukhammas abu Shammish.
(Shams is Sun in Arabic, Shammish may be some grammatical variation or I misunderstood the
word.) None of the other examples have apparent maker's marks either. Images of three are linked
below and the fifth has no image.
• My sword has the five grooved Makhummas with a sun at the end. Made circa
1914 in Kassaka. (Figure 16, next page).
• Lew's post on “Makhumas with Sun,” virtually identical to mine.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showp...07&postcount=21
• RDGAC Comments on Kaskara #3 in Post #10 on the below thread that is a war
trophy collected c. 1882 and shown in figs. 17 & 18 on the following page.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=11950
• Paolo's sword. See Post #1.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15749
• Clement's sword that is decorated with silver inlays. See Post # 1.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=23098
There was a rich discussion of Five-Fullered blades back in 2012 in which Lew’s and Paolo’s
swords were reviewed. I won’t replough that land too much. However, since then I have looked up
Mukhammas on the web and found on Wikipedia that:
Mukhammas (Arabic ‘fivefold’) refers to a type of Persian or Urdu cinquain or
pentastich with Sufi connections based on a pentameter and have five lines in
each paragraph. More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukhammas
Native and Arabic poetry is a feature of Sudanese culture. But who would have thought that a
special Kassala-made sword blade (5 channels are much more difficult to make than 3 fullers)
would have a link to a Persian and Urdu (Muslim part of India) poetry form? There may be a prosaic
explaination. Mukhammas may be just a grammatic feature of Arabic for Five = Khamsa, but I
prefer the poetry connection.
My Mukhumas was reportedly made circa 1914 by a Kassaka smith who supposedy said he saw
another being made and decided to give it a try. The RDGAC example was recovered circa 1882,
almost a generation before mine was made. This suggests that mine was at least a second generation
example of the type. When and how did it originate, and what symbolic or other purpose prompted
its fabrication? These blades were not made for the general market. Who were their clients? End quote.

Ed

[francantolin]

Hello,
I've got one with five fullers,
They told me it was a talismanic symbolic sign for number 5: Khemsa like the Fatma hand
+ skill for make the five fullers make the status of the owner higher

[francantolin]

Oops,
Edster already told it 👍👍

[Iain]

The likely origin of this style, both for kaskara and takouba, lies in the interlinked blade trade from Europe for both sword styles.

In particular schiavona and various backswords often imported blades and could feature 1, 2, 3, 4 etc fullers. These were common and mass imported into the Sahel and no doubt influenced later local styles. In years past I had documented plenty of 4+ fullered blades on takouba, some local some European in origin. Can't recall off the top of my head if there were any 5 fuller European ones I came across.

[Marc M.]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hi Marc,

I've had it many times that a post received a lot of views but got.no single comment for a long time. But the many views show that it's interesting but people don't know what they should comment on.
I for my part like takoubas but know not enough about them to give a comment.
What do you think about how old it is? Mid. 20th century with an older blade?

Regards,
Detlef

Hi Detlef
thanks for your response, the reason I show an object is to get the widest possible variety of these objects on this forum and with diverse response from members.
My expertise regarding takouba's is not that great, when I come across a specimen the forum is a great source of information.
To me this takouba is Touareg and the age is difficult to determine, probably 2nd half of 20th century.
Best regards
Marc

[Marc M.]

Thanks everyone for the informative infomation, it was what I was hoping for.
Best regards
Marc

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Marc M.

Hi Detlef
thanks for your response, the reason I show an object is to get the widest possible variety of these objects on this forum and with diverse response from members.
My expertise regarding takouba's is not that great, when I come across a specimen the forum is a great source of information.
To me this takouba is Touareg and the age is difficult to determine, probably 2nd half of 20th century.
Best regards
Marc

Hi Marc,

So I tried to help to get your thread running!

Regards,
Detlef

[Marc M.]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hi Marc,

So I tried to help to get your thread running!

Regards,
Detlef

Top.

Regards
Marc