Mahdist period, C.1885. Three daggers with tool finished blades and Nile crocodile skin grips. In a common scabbard covered in snake and crocodile skin. Some shrinkage to the skin as expected. The blades of each dagger inscribed in Arabic one side with Khartoum (meaning elephant’s trunk) and Omdurman the other. The cities of Khartoum and Omdurman, in the Sudan were the sites of the defining battles of the Anglo-Sudanese War. The inscriptions almost certainly indicate that this weapon set participated in both battles and commemorate them to the owner and his heirs.
