An unusual Shaska

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Estcrh, thanks for the great insight and for the agreement with my observation about the Caucasians (Circassians) in Ottoman service.
As I had noted, "it is not a shashka per se'" thus NOT actually a shashka but a weapon composite using the general form plus crossguard.
Agree, a scabbard always is helpful when evaluating these kinds of composite items...but this one still very intriguing.

Jim, my mistake in not checking what I wrote before posting, it should have read "I see no reason why this would NOT be a shashka". This sword comes at a good time as I have been searching for shashka with Ottoman scabbards and Harry comes up with an Ottoman fitted shashka sword. While thousands of Circassians ended up in the Ottoman empire and kept using shashka,I have not found many examples of shashka scabbards with an Ottoman influence and Harrys shashka is the first sword I have seen with an Ottoman influence.

Here is an example of a shashka with Ottoman type mounts.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you Estcrh, I was pretty sure we were on the same page
Outstanding illustrations (as always) and incredible details.
With these Ottoman scabbards it seems I once knew the terms describing them (the distinct little 'springs' in the gap) but darned if I can find the notes.
It really is interesting to see the kinds of variations in weaponry the diversity of ethnicity in Ottoman forces brought.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

With these Ottoman scabbards it seems I once knew the terms describing them (the distinct little 'springs' in the gap) but darned if I can find the notes.

Jim, I seem to remember a particular term as well, but "with characteristic Ottoman metal spiral stitched scabbard" works. This shashka appears to be another example.

[arsendaday]

Originally Posted by estcrh

Jim, my mistake in not checking what I wrote before posting, it should have read "I see no reason why this would NOT be a shashka". This sword comes at a good time as I have been searching for shashka with Ottoman scabbards and Harry comes up with an Ottoman fitted shashka sword. While thousands of Circassians ended up in the Ottoman empire and kept using shashka,I have not found many examples of shashka scabbards with an Ottoman influence and Harrys shashka is the first sword I have seen with an Ottoman influence.

Here is an example of a shashka with Ottoman type mounts.

Nice photos Estcrh! While they may not be a lot of Ottoman Shashkas surviving today, they were actually being made in Ottoman Turkey at some point. And considering the fame and usefullnes of shashkas it is no surprise that Ottomans were considering them for their own use. (As Russians did, and eventually ended up replacing all their bladed weapons with modified shashkas) So I think your examples and this sword also are the result of those experiments. But for some reason or another (the main one being the German military influence) the Ottoman army started using the Western European sword types instead.