Turkey Swords - C17th England

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Triarii

Hi,

Reading about 1630s English militia and they - pikemen and musketeers - are recommended to have "a sword right Turkey with a good basket hilt".

Any idea what a 'Turkey' sword would be in this context?

While I dont have an exact reference handy, it seems most likely that was a colloquial expression meaning loosely a 'curved blade'. This is in line with the Scottish term 'turcael' referring to same, and a Scottish basket hilt.

It seems that Scots while on campaign as mercenaries in Europe had occasion to have basket hilts mounted with curved saber blades which they compared of course to those used by the Turks.