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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
Another interesting thing regarding 19th century Algeria and the young men returning from gaining thier fortunes, notes that they would then get a sword either yataghan or flyssa, but the Ottoman yataghan was more highly esteemed. This seems interesting since many earlier discussions refuted the idea that the yataghan could have had influence on the development of the flyssa since Ottomans never conquered the Kabyles.
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Hi Jim!
I recall arguing that point a good bit
and the mention of young Kabyles buying yataghans seems to throw a wrench in it. From all I could find, Kabylia never fell under Ottoman rule and yeniceri troops did not occupy the region. Now you and others did argue that this would not be an obstacle to direct trade, and the above mention seems to confirm this point. So Kabyles definitely had access to yataghans...now I question whether this means that the flyssa necessarily developed from the yataghan. Why would Kabyles produce a new weapon form if they had ready access to a more desirable one?
Kronckew made a point that I had been thinking about, namely the use of camels. The pommel of the flyssa itself looks like a camel head to me. But then I wonder whether camels were actually used along the coast, where the Ifflissen were located. Furthermore, Kabylia is a mountainous region.
Tatyana, the curved flyssa you showed has been discussed here before. Some may remember my panicked rants in the "curved flyssa in the St-Petersburg museum" thread
Lew, there is a flyssa on Oriental-Arms with a laminated blade (
http://www.oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=2694) an interesting development which leads me to wonder how rare or common this is. Maybe we should start etching our flyssa's.
Jim, my belief that the flyssa developed independently of the yataghan is slowly falling appart. Here is a yataghan with decorations incredibly similar to those on flyssa's -
http://www.oriental-arms.com/item.php?id=2703 identified as East European.
I'll keep playing the Devil's advocate as long as I can, and I will certainly continue the research.
All the best,
Emanuel