Turkish knife

[Rivkin]

Well, not being a specialist:

I've seen quite a lot of shashkas similar to one shown by Miyamoto. In my opinion, they all come from late XIX- early XX century, and may be represent some unknown military pattern (because they all have this 6 point star and crescent). On the other hand the quality of shashkas varies so...

Now to the symbolics - while 6 point star was videly used by turkish tribes, its use gradually decreased in favor of 5 and 8 point stars (turks, azeris, karachai, balkar).

6 point star is a symbol of Trabzon weaponry (afaik), but it is always depicted in a circle and without the crescent - as on yataghan's hilt that I attached to the message (btw it belonged to Lermontov. The blade was destroyed due to the soviet restrictions on "weapons".)

Now 6 point star, together with crescent and arrows is a symbol of Kabarda tribe (part of circassians). Ironically it is even persisted as part of ensignia of northern caucasus SS unit during WWII. Other adighes prefer to use 5 point stars.

6 point star with a crescent also have been heavily used in Ingushetia. It was also used by "jew-like" muslims in Karachai, and by a very small group of osethian muslisms.

Can it be a symbol of circassian units in Turkey ? I think more knowledgeble person has to be asked about it, since the symbol is somewhat too generic to pinpoint the exact origin.

I should also point out that six point star and a crescent was used by some of the russian pre-revolution troops from Uzbekistan.