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20th October 2021, 03:13 PM | #1 |
Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 153
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The inscription is not clear, words run into each other etc. and it is incomplete.
The style of the inscription goes back to the Mamluks, though this does not necessarily mean that it is that old of course. It looks like the following, but it is really a guess and should not be taken as definitive. I guess it is an extract from a poem العلق(؟) لا الملطاء(؟) العمر لا 'A blood clot(?) rather than a penetrating wound(?), life rather than ..." |
20th October 2021, 04:05 PM | #2 | |
Arms Historian
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Route 66
Posts: 9,785
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Quote:
It is my impression that the use of thuluth on the Mahdist blades derives from inscriptions on Mamluk metalwork, and the Sufi influences of course were strong throughout Sudan. These kinds of poetic phrases were well known in those contexts with metalwork. That the inscriptions were not properly configured runs in line with the way the thuluth was usually applied, and often had to be worked into a set space. Thuluth inscriptions themselves, long thought to be illegible and simply decorative were actually Quranic phrases used in repitition as motif. |
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