Bulgarian or Afghan knife?

[ariel]

Originally Posted by mariusgmioc

Yes, it was. To my knowledge, like the Ottoman Janissaries, the Berbers also used chainmail till quite late in the 19th century so they developped sharp pointed Flyssas to penetrate chainmail.

My two cents...

Janissary corps was very brutally disbanded in 1826. Wilkinson sold very poor quality chainmail to the Khedive of Egypt at the end of 19th century. That is as much as I know about chainmail in N. Africa. Can you direct me to your source of Berber chainmail, please? AFAIK, Berbers were dirt poor and very much oppressed in Muslim N. Africa. Thus, it would seem strange to me that their tribes maintained organized military with a significant use of expensive chainmail.

Also, the long points of flissa ( at least those that I happened to handle) were incredibly flimsy, unlike Tatar ordynkas. Difficult to imagine that they had any practical value against chainmail. And virtually all Islamic swordplays did not include stabbing , with the exception of Ottoman version of estocs. Something does not jibe there....