The ethnographic edged weapons from Bulgaria are not that well studied. This is probably partly due to the fact that a big part of them is of course generally described as Ottoman, and while Bulgaria was under Ottoman rule for a significant part of her history - almost 5 centuries to be exact from 1398 to 1878, this is probably not quite correct for the purpose of the study of those weapons. There are some differences between certain weapon types from that part of the Balkans where Bulgaria is now and the rest of the vast Ottoman Empire, yataghans are what comes to mind, but also knidjals, bichaqs, khanjars, etc.
Also, there are certain weapons that are typical of Bulgaria only, and that have been receiving almost zero attention. One of them is the shephard's knife, for which I promise to make a thread here soon, and another type is the mystery, the topic of this thread.
Actually, I have to admit: the main reason I am starting this thread is to try to see if there is some information on these unknown (to me at least) weapons. I have been able to gather pictures of a few specimens, unfortunatelly none of which are in my collection. The first spcimen is a short sword, or an oversized kama, for which I have some provenance. It belongs to a very good friend of mine, who collects historical edged weapons and firearms, and according to him it is his family's relic, as the earliest of his predecessors he can trace back to acquired it from a Turk he killed with an axe. This is believed to have happened in the 17th or early 18th century. While this of course can never be conclusively proven (I have no reason to doubt his story, as long as it was passed to him correctly), here is a picture of the weapon among some other blades and scabbards that I hope do not distract too much:
The scales on the handle are made of horn, and to some extent resemble those on kindjals from the Caucasus, however the blade has a central rib rather than a fuller and overall this does not look like anything from the Caucasus I have personally seen.
The second item is a kama-like weapon, in the collection of another fellow collector in Bulgaria. He has no idea of what it could be, and he only vaguely believes there is a similar weapon in a museum in the town of Samokov, which is a very small town hidden in the Rila mountains that was a metallurgy center during the 16th, 17th, and 18th century, and lost its significance in the 19th century. Unfortunately, as of right now I do not have a picture, and the last time I was in Samokov happened to be more than 10 years ago, a little before my interest in edged weapons formed, so I do not remember anything. Here it is:
Again, double edged, horn scales hilt, and this time there are two decorative fullers (I do not know if I should even call them fullers) close to the edges, and a most extraordinary guard. It is hard to estimate age with any certainty.
Finally, here is a similar kama that sold on eBay recently that I am still kicking myself for not bidding on:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=6517611858
It is of cruder and most probably later manufacture than the previous two, but its sheath has survived. It is deffinitely not a Bulgarian version of a Caucasus kindjal, and to prove that here is a small picture of a typical Bulgarian kama, which is the local version that developped based on the Caucasus kindjals and kamas:
You can perhaps see the obvious differences.
So here is the question: does anybody know anything about these weapons? They most deffinitely came from Bulgaria. As of their age, nothing is certain. One needs to keep in mind that Caucasus kindjals arrived in Bulgarian lands with Muslim Circassians that the Ottomans relocated from the Caucasus (I believe nowadays Chechnya and Dagestan) to areas with troublesome Christians in an attempt to act as a counterforce to the latter. The three weapons that I have posted are certainly not derived from the Caucasus kindjals and therefore they should be earlier, probably dating back to the 18th century or maybe even earlier, to the 17th. Are they derived from western daggers/swords? Or are they atavistic medieval forms that survived in this corner of the Ottoman Empire for quite a long time? Has anybody seen something similar in neighboring countries (Radu, Eftihis, Yannis, Erlikhan)? Maybe someone here will have some clues, and it is possible that the three weapons turn out to not be from the same group and even to have very little in common, who knows? Whatever the case, I am eager for your opinions and respones.
Best regards,
Teodor