European 'yataghans'

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Victrix

Hi Jim,

This is a curious sword. The blade has a kind of concave shape like a sickle and I wonder how it would be handled. Perhaps almost like scythe?

Hi Victrix,

It is indeed very curious as it leaves the typical European sword realm and transcends into 'oriental', which was the trademark and character of the 'Pandour' styled forces using these originally.

The yataghan's design is that it has a reverse curve, thus the cutting edge is on the inside, so as you observe it is probably used in cuts very much like a scythe.
The image of ivory hilted sword is an Ottoman yataghan, probably Balkan.

It appears this blade is likely European produced, and clearly not the normal style for their usual production, so chances are this was privately commissioned of course. While these specialty type units were known in these European armies, and officers had carte blanche in their typical flamboyant fashions, one wonders just how many weapons like this may have been produced.

Your suggestion on the intriguing alphabet of this Bosnian Cyrillic language of Bosnian Muslim nobility seems well placed. These colorful hussar and Pandour type units were well known across Europe, and many Hungarian blades have mysterious inscriptions such as those mentioned here.As this flamboyant military tradition extended across Europe, so did the blade inscriptions used on the swords.

It appears most of these inscriptions used devices and motif representing oriental themes including the turban wearing figure, along with inscriptions using elaborate lettering and indecipherable 'words'. These seem to have been from numerous 'magic' alphabets which used letters and symbols which were taken from various sources and languages.

Some of these were from the Vehmic and 'inquisition' alphabets which resemble runes, hermetic or alchemical symbols, Hebrew letters, and various others. In most cases these seem to be amalgamations, so it is possible that this kind of alphabet might have lent characters to some of these inscriptions.

The first illustrations are on shashka blades, where many of these came from Hungarian sources. The styles of inscriptions are seen in the smaller panel at bottom, of these kinds of inscriptions known collectively as the 'Transylvanian knot', referring to magic symbolism.