Sasa-Liviu,
The best book on Balkan weapons is "The Arms of Greece and Her Balkan Neighbors" by Robert Elgood. It concentrates on the Western and Southern Balkans only, but is by far the most thorough study on the subject. It is quite affordable and I highly recommend getting a copy.
Apart from Elgood's book there are various other supplemental books:
- "Turetskoe Orujie" by Astvatsaturian deals with Ottoman Arms in general, including a good deal that would be found on the Balkans.
- "Weaponry of the Past" by Kovacheva an Daskalov is a book about antique arms from Bulgaria from the Ottoman period, with some limited passages about karakulaks and other edged weapons, but still focuses mostly on the manufacture and decoration of firearms.
- There are Turkish and Croatian catalogues of yataghans, from the Askeri Museum and the Croatian History Museum in Zagreb, respectively. Not much info, in Turkish and Croatian (almost no English), but a great deal of pictures, with good quality pictures in the Turkish book.
There could be more books: the above are just the ones I have and therefore could comment on. You can probably add more to the list. For example there has been a small book circulating on eBay, in which the author has published his collection of edged weapons, mostly knives and daggers.
Regards,
Teodor
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