Hello Brian!
First of all my apologies I wasn't here from the beginning as you expected, but somehow I didn't pay attention to this thread, and I've just missed it
. Now seeing how many petitions were send to me, I feel honor bound to answer, but I'm afraid that knowledge and resources aren't always with willingness in pair.
It's really hard to find such hilts earlier than in 17th century, when they were spread around the world through Persia to Poland and to other countries. I always had the feeling (and maybe I'm wrong!) that dating of eastern/islamic objects is always problematic and very often not precisely, because of very preservative forms which existed through the centuries. Those beautiful sabres dated on 16th century seems to be later too (anyway the hilts seems to be later), and (knowing Museum reality) very often some objects are attributed to persons (like Sultans, Kings, noblemens, heroes) only because of the tradition. Then you can read "16th" or "17th century" even if curators are sure they're later. It only complicates even obvious facts, and is making the researches harder.
Here are two pictures. I'm not quite sure this is what you're looking for, but lets make another try in this thread. First picture is more important, because it refers to sabre from 13th century (from book: David Nicolle,
Early Medieval Islamic Arms and Armour, Madrid 1973). The exact sabre is brighter. Second picture is from catalogue
Orez Perski (Persian Arms and armour) by A. R. Chodynski, and is showing hilts of Persian sabres through the ages (classification made by Lech Kobylinski).
Hope it will help somehow
Regards
Michal