In Kabyle regions, where the flyssa, whose ancestry seems generally held to have evolved from the yataghan, the young mans greatest rites of passage was the acquisition of his sword. Naturally the flyssa, being locally fashioned, was the traditional aspiration, however it is said that in certain metropolitan regions, the Ottoman yataghan was very much admired and often sought. It would seem that while the traditional blades were the standard, a custom example might have been commissioned.
I am curious about the North African example of the Laz Bicagi, as the horned hilt weapon formerly referred to as Kurdish/Armenian yataghan; Transcaucasian yataghan or colloquially as 'Black Sea yataghan'.
I am wondering if there are more of these in existance than the example in Tirri's book, which is a magnificently produced book and excellent resource overall, despite my unfortunate disagreement with the Egyptian attribution he shows for these ("Islamic Weapons:Maghreb to Moghul", A.Tirri, 2003, p.67, fig. 37B, 'Egyptian/Algerian 'kopesh' yataghan).
While Tirri does not reference his supporting references for the Egyptian 'origin' of these, I recall they included two sales catalogs, and a Russian reference, which was where the kopesh term was used.
My primary question was always, why were all of these swords which were produced in Egypt all exported en masse to regions in the Black Sea and environs, leaving no trace but the forementioned example. I recall in the many years I researched these, finding the identifications of them in 1896, 1941, 1962 shown as Kurdish/Armenian yataghans and so on. I found provenanced examples in Denmark (the article written in 1941 was published by the Danish Arms and Armour Society).
As I have said, the Tirri book is truly outstanding, and it is one that I now have back with me, and I consider it a valuable resource.....with this exception
All best regards,
Jim