Thank you your input Gentlemen,
I also thought about a Central Asian origin of the blade, but the hilt and scabbard are very non-Central Asian, and I am yet to see evidence of Bukharan blades flowing west, as opposed to the other way around which is well documented. Chechen work may be a very good guess, and I will look at Askhabov's book for similar examples. Per Rivkin, Tiflis was indeed a major sword production and trade center, and the script may be in Georgian or an imitation of Georgian. For what it is worth, the sword was collected (and still remains) in the Balkans, so at least the concluding point of its journey is known.
I suspect that if anyone can read the script or at least identify what language it is intended to resemble, it may provide a great clue on the blade's origin.
Teodor
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