Turkish Ribbon yataghan

[Emanuel]

Hello folks,

I had the good fortune to pick up this yataghan a short while ago. The seller's pics suggested the blade might have a Turkish ribbon construction and it turned out to be the case. Blade is about 29", with 4-5 twisted bars.
It is dated 1271 - 1855. Can someone translate the small cartouche?

The handle scales are missing but it won't be too hard to replace them. The yataghan of this type I have seen had simple horn slabs, nothing fancy. At first look I thought the simple ferrule was a solder replacement. A very similar example on Oriental-Arms indicated that this is a pewter-silver alloy. It looks like it's meant to imitate the full silver/copper ferrules in appearance only. The blade has an integral bolster.

Also interesting is the blade's profile and thickness. It has a T-section and is about 1cm thick at the spine, over twice as thick as the Balkan yataghan I have (see pics below).

Comments, thoughts would be most welcome.
Emanuel

[Emanuel]

New pics

[Emanuel]

Comparison to Balkan yataghan

[A.alnakkas]

Awesome piece, i very much like it!

I cant read the cartouche perfectly but it could be Mala'eka (angels) or Mulla "something". I cannot write in arabic at the moment due to pc lacking arabic script.

Would love to see it restored :)

[Atlantia]

Excellent catch Emanuel!
It would have taken a tremendous amount of work to produce a blade like that!!
Well worth the effort of restoring. I look forward to seeing it finsihed.
I'd hope one day to find a pattern welded Ottoman Yat and Kilıç to sit with my 'starry night' Kindjal.
Congrats
Gene

[fearn]

This is the same one that's in the swap forum?

[Zifir]

It is written "Selanik" (Salonica,Thessaloniki whichever you like) in the cartouche.

[Emanuel]

Thanks folks.
Interesting, that would make this a Greek yataghan not Anatolian as I thought.

Fearn, as I replied in the swap thread, I had initially posted in the wrong forum. The yataghan is certainly not for sale/swap :D