Ola
Agreed these stirrups are not Ottoman, the Ottomans stirrups are different as you said (see the ones in Tokape catalogue).
Why are they frequently mixed with Turkish/Ottoman stirrups?
What I'll write is only my opinion.
The Ottoman cavalry sipahi was re-invented in Algeria during the French colonial period, when the French created an unit called Spahi (1831). They standardised their stirrups on the North African models (Algeria/Morocco). I suspect half of your stirrups to be regular spahi stirrups (late 19th).
Indeed the North African stirrups might have been influenced by al-Andalus after 1492 or even before.
Now the tricky part is there is still a possibility that North African stirrups are in fact a local variation of the Ottoman stirrups introduced through Algeria as an Ottoman province...
To be continued...
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