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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
In my post #3, I mentioned unusual sabres with Ottoman grips which had a European style guard and knucklebow, which seemed pertinent here as we consider these rather hybridized forms. This one Gav had some time ago and the photo is of this form. It seems to have had Hungarian associations as well of course as Ottoman influence, and I wonder if perhaps these might have been involved with Ottoman forces, perhaps in Balkans .
There is a sabre with the pistol grip hilt and crossguard with elliptical langet/quillon block with alternating quillons but no knuckleguard which is attributed (noted probably in reference) to Hungarian light cavalry early 19th to mid. ("Edged Weapons: Sabers of the Habsburg Empire 16th-2th c" Konopisky& Moudry, 1991, Prague, pp.68-69), but this only suggests that pistol grip hilts were not unknown in Hungarian context
Returning to the 'shashka' type example in discussion, it is tempting to suggest the cleft may be related to Ottoman yataghans, but the hilt and cleft features are more of Caucasian shashka style.
It seems quite possible for this example attached here to possibly be aligned with Ottoman presence in Balkans (the blade here has the familiar sun and moon inscribed as on Hungarian forms).
With the wide influences of the Ottoman Empire diffused through these many countries and regions it is a challenge to determine just what classification to set on these hybrids.
* Gavin Nugent photo
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I think at some point a fighter who is used to a certain type of handle/hilt and is given a totally different weapon to fight with, (due to switching sides or alliances, or acquiring a blade in the battle) will take his weapon to a weapon-smith and have it modified. And the weapon-smith being a local would have to modify what he has a and try to make it into what the client wants. This photo in my opinion is exactly such example. The cross guard only looks like a European one, but it is very obvious that this is a modified version of a regular Middle-Eastern cross-guard. And the smith did not add anything on an existing guard, but just made the cross-guard the way he knew how and just made the guards longer and curved them. Even the tip of one of the guards is typical Middle-Eastern.