Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Interesting Tribal Shaska with wootz blade

ham · 27th January 2006, 05:47 PM

RSword has himself a fine and unusual example of a shashka with wootz blade-- it may be a refitted Persian one but it would be necessary to consider its thickness and section before establishing this. The curvature is so shallow, however, that it most likely was commissioned by the owner to be hilted as it now appears, probably in Tbilisi. This was an important center of arms production, where Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and too many ethnicities to list, worked and traded. Wootz was certainly forged there, and possibly elsewhere in the Caucasus as well. Tbilisi smiths were to a considerable extent influenced by then-pervasive Ottoman forms-- the "comma-" shaped inlay on the pommel evokes the small reinforcing plates found on the pommels of Ottoman swords where the lanyard passes through, and the inscription on this blade is in Ottoman, rather than Persian, style as well. Incidentally, it isn't a signature, it is a prayer, MASHA ALLAH! or GOD BLESS!

Nice sword and a rare one.

Ham

27th January 2006, 05:47 PM	#14
ham Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 190	RSword has himself a fine and unusual example of a shashka with wootz blade-- it may be a refitted Persian one but it would be necessary to consider its thickness and section before establishing this. The curvature is so shallow, however, that it most likely was commissioned by the owner to be hilted as it now appears, probably in Tbilisi. This was an important center of arms production, where Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and too many ethnicities to list, worked and traded. Wootz was certainly forged there, and possibly elsewhere in the Caucasus as well. Tbilisi smiths were to a considerable extent influenced by then-pervasive Ottoman forms-- the "comma-" shaped inlay on the pommel evokes the small reinforcing plates found on the pommels of Ottoman swords where the lanyard passes through, and the inscription on this blade is in Ottoman, rather than Persian, style as well. Incidentally, it isn't a signature, it is a prayer, MASHA ALLAH! or GOD BLESS! Nice sword and a rare one. Ham Last edited by ham; 27th January 2006 at 06:10 PM.