Curved Flyssa in St-Petersburg museum...Ariel, Jim, Ham...somebody please explain!!!

ariel · 19th December 2006, 12:45 PM

The exhibition describes it as an "Uzbeki Shashka". Very strange. I am quite uncertain about the validity of IDs: there is a typical Qajar Revival sword with a very usual point, described as Zulfiqar

However, the ax is an Uzbeki Ay-Balta, the shamshir has a collar of turquoise on the throat of the scabbard ( you even can see a part of it in the picture showing the hilt of the "'shashka") and provenanced as the gift of the Emir of Bukhara to the Tsar, and the karud also has the same collar on the bolster.

Assuming the Uzbeki attribution is correct, we can go on a very, very long limb: is it possible that the blade is the ancestor of both Laz Bicagi (Black Sea Yataghan) and Flyssa?
I can see the proverbial fan turning my way..... Duck...

19th December 2006, 12:45 PM	#6
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	The exhibition describes it as an "Uzbeki Shashka". Very strange. I am quite uncertain about the validity of IDs: there is a typical Qajar Revival sword with a very usual point, described as Zulfiqar However, the ax is an Uzbeki Ay-Balta, the shamshir has a collar of turquoise on the throat of the scabbard ( you even can see a part of it in the picture showing the hilt of the "'shashka") and provenanced as the gift of the Emir of Bukhara to the Tsar, and the karud also has the same collar on the bolster. Assuming the Uzbeki attribution is correct, we can go on a very, very long limb: is it possible that the blade is the ancestor of both Laz Bicagi (Black Sea Yataghan) and Flyssa? I can see the proverbial fan turning my way..... Duck...