Hi all... Here I attached 5 images, first three showing Circassian soldiers at İstanbul. The arms and clothing of the Circassians were well known in the Ottoman Empire. Çerkes Kaması (Circassian Qama) and Çerkes Kılıcı (Circassian Saber) were famous enough to have part in the folk tales or ballads.
The last two are interesting: We see Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of modern Turkey, during Turco-Italian War, or Tripolitanian War, in 1911-12, wearing a shashka. The very last one is from 1922, showing the high command of the Turkish forces just before the end of the Greek-Turkish War. An officer, possibly from Circassian origin, wearing a kindjal and shashka.
Seems that shashka was already known and famous in the eastern world, before it re-gained its fame as "Cossack shashka"
