Shashka for comments

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by ArmsAndAntiques

Hi Jim,

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of those as I had them several years ago before I began to systematically keep photos of my pieces. However, just a few weeks ago I had dinner with a friend of mine, an Afghan war vet, who picked up some pieces there and if I remember right at least two of the pieces he showed me had similar fullering.

While I can't produce the photos of those Afghan pieces, I would feel that it would be interesting for someone to show a photo of a definite Caucasian origin piece with a similar blade. I also would say that the fuller work trending towards Central Asian, is also supported by Chinese swords with similar fullering as well, something picked up from Persian-Central Asian aesthetics, as Philip Tom has written about quite eloquently.

Best
LL

It would indeed be helpful to have photos of the fullering arrangements from both the paluoars mentioned and of Caucasian examples, but I admit the Chinese aspect is extremely intriguing. Could you say more on which of Philip's works reference these kinds of blades in Chinese swords?

I have come up with something which might lend toward the plausibly Afghan provenance for the blade you have suggested. In considering the rather crude fuller detail I must admit that that would be far out of character of Chechen blades.

That curious device which seems to resemble some kind of bird or other highly stylized image, while reminding me of certain designs from the Caucusus has also brought to mind another region using these kinds of animist pictograph devices. This is the area of Afghanistan now called Nuristan in which the Kafirs occupied. This area was once termed Kafiristan and the native tribes practiced a polytheistic animist religion until they were subjugated by Emir Abdur Rahman Khan of Afghanistan in 1896. While they became Muslim, they still carried forth elements of their folk religion and perhaps that may explain the Islamic cartouche coupled with this apparently animist device on the blade.

I have noticed that as you suggest the curvature of some Afghan sabres of shashka form is much the same, and possibly we might find confluence in classification with this Nuristani possibility. I think this could answer in part the provenance of the blade, but the present mounts I believe may still be from Tiblisi (Tiflis)regions and Transcaucasian artisans there.