Central Asian shashka.

[ausjulius]

Here is a typical example of a central Asian "shashka".

The blade has a slight T section and almost no taper till the foible where it tapers abruptly.

The blade gets thinner and less robust along its profile but the T section thickness is almost the same as at the ricasso till the foible
Sharpened all the way to the hilt (many Afghan ones are sharpening 4-7cms up the blade like indian swords)
It's missing it's scabbard.
It's not to fancy so I've used it to cut with. It has a bevel like a peshkabz.

I would add a little ice observed about shashkas over the years

I have to say compared to the traditional caucasian shashkas this style with the bag shaped grip that is common in central Asia is a vastly inferior weapon in handling and speed, cutting power even though on average the blade is heavier and longer.

I could cut substantially faster with a caucasian shashkas and much harder and with far more control.

The two arms are not comparable but at a glance look the same.
The central Asian/Afghan shashka style with a wider handle with 5 or 7 pins and without wars. Identical in handle to some peshkabz handles better but it's generally a heavy blades slow choppy weapon.

I'd imagine the shashka and it's related weapons all originated about the same time in a cultural world from Morocco to Kashgar. A period after the appearance of economical flintlock pistols appeared
You can see the same arms in morocco, Tunisia, Arabia, turkey, Sardinia, Iran, Caucasus, Afghanistan, central Asia.. so on.. bit knives all originating from slab handled belt knives..
So I don't know if it's fair to say these are all derived from the shashka. It's probably the other way around if anything..
Considering the Caucasus people did not travel and trade widely where as many other groups with such arms did.
But whatever the origin of those 1600s big knives is ... I'd say the North Caucasus people's became the master of them.
I've now handled and cut with many of these armes that are similar to the shashka and no be have anything close to the speed, dexterity and cutting power of the shashkas of the Caucasus.
they are just so refined in their hand alignment and blade geometry.
Modern Russian examples are mostly missing many features (especially the lack of a secondary bevel on the originals. As they area fine convex to zero edge) and many times the Russian copies have handles that are to rounded or blade geometry that is wrong.
But the originals when well sharpened are unparalleled in cutting power for their size and weight.

I do like the aesthetic of the central Asian "shashka" styles as they match the smaller knives they grew out of .
which also leads me to believe that these don't originate in the Caucasus as there is no comparable short knife that the grew out of.
Where as in most other cultures with these swords developed from knives the short parent knife is visible