Thanks for your input guys. I'd be interested in seeing pictures of yours, David!
Yeah, the scabbard stitching definitely looks Ottoman. Although FWIW, the other example I posted is listed as "Turkish-type Hungarian sabre from the 18th century" by the Ferenc Nadasdy Museum
here.
And yeah, it looks very shashka-esque without the guard. On a related note, see the image attached as to why I said the blade reminds me of that of some shashka blades (although obviously the tip is different).
I think the closest one I've found in terms of what the guard would have probably looked like is
this (leftmost) one:
Interestingly though, that one looks like there is a rivet at the top, but I can see no indication that there was ever a rivet running through the grip scales or blade on mine.
I like the look of it in spite of the missing bits and other blemishes, and it is my only Ottoman pistol gripped sword (I like this grip style and I'd love to one day own a nice pala, but for now that is outside my budget). Still very sharp, too.
And it feels nice to hold except for the movement in the grip. Would be nice if I could somehow fasten those grip scales a bit so that I could handle it a bit more without them giving away in my hands, but I'm not sure how to do that without having to remove the rivets (which I'm not comfortable doing at this point). There is a sizeable gap between the scales and the blade, so I suppose it would be possible to inject some epoxy/pitch in there, but I don't want to accidentally ruin it with an ill-advised repair attempt. Any advice on how to accomplish this in a responsible way (if it is even possible), and on what kind of pitch to use would be appreciated.