Thank you ariel for your detailed response.
I'd like to avoid a looong message because I just wrote one above, and wouldn't want to crowd the thread.
So let me just calrify one point: I think I failed(english as as sceond language) but what I meant to say was rumi-palmet shaped "karabela"style pommel was also very common in Turkish kilijs, knives, khanjars, daggers, qamas etc. And if you cut the ear extentions, that is the basic shape of most yataghan pommels.
And I also would like to say I respectfully don't share your opinion of Europe as a whole has a cultural unity. I believe this so-called "Occident" is much as a mirage as the "Orient" is. But that is a whole another subject of discussion.
Edit: Andrew thank you as well for your response and your kind words. Very interesting points you made. Unfortunately my posts seem to have some sort of delay so I can't keep up with the conversation in sync.
