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Originally Posted by ariel
By the way, in Russian, where a good chunk of its vocabulary is of Turkish ( not necessarily Ottoman, but much earlier, back to the Mongolian invasion) the word Sarai ( Сарай) designates not a castle but just a shed, like garden shed. Also, in a slightly modified meaning , “Sarai” is an unkempt, dirty and disorganized living space.
The “Ottoman” origin of all Yataghans in Russian literature was due to the inability of Soviet weapon historians ( such as Astvatsaturian) to visit foreign museums and to talk to foreign colleagues, especially in Yugoslavia: Tito was regarded as a traitor to the great Lenin-Stalin orthodoxy. Greece, after suppression of the communist putsch, was also out of bounds. And, since Bulgaria was “liberated” from the Ottomans by the Russian armies in the 19 century and every “non- Slavic” feature was regarded as Turkish. Thus, Astvatsaturian’s attribution of Ottoman weapons was grossly misinformed and fallacious. Not her fault: the realities of the closed and politicized nature of Communist regime(s).
Relatively recent Turkish books, such as the one by Gozde Yasar, perpetuate this narrow view: each and every yataghan there is labeled as Ottoman, with the unspoken implication of being Turkish. No attempt was made to pinpoint decorative features specific to their non-Anatolian origin.
Works of Marija Sercer from Zagreb were largely unknown and were not even cited in the above books. Only from a recent book by Dora Boskovic did we learn about Sercer’s major contributions.
First time I heard of Bulgarian weapon centers was from the Daskalov’s book.
And, finally, the role of Balkan centers was brought to the full view by Elgood.
All of them were published and widely available only after collapse of the Soviet Union and redrawing of the maps.
Sadly, politics and nationalism play major and destructive role in historical studies.
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Correction; Josip Broz and Djilas were close allies of Djugasjvilli ...only later a shift took place, just before the death of the latter :
https://yuhistorija.com/int_relations_txt01c1.html
As for literature concerning the yataghan : this is all in the eye of the beholder.
After Austria’s or better the Habsburg occupation of Bosnia and Hercegowina in 1878, quite some and very valid information can be found (if one masters German) in many publications of “ Wissenschaftliche Mittheilungen aus Bosnien und der Hercegovina “ (= scientific notices ) published in Vienna between 1892/3 and 1916.
Also a lot of visitors to the Balkans between 1600 and 1900 did write about their travels with sometimes excellent descriptions and drawings of knives, kamas, bicaqs, yataghans.
And due to absence of copyright, legal downloads are available for free , also cheap reprints 22-30 Euro can be bought and the original books for “ the yataghan collector” can be found for a reasonable price .