Mystery Weapons from Bulgaria

[TVV]

Originally Posted by Rumpel

Hi Teodor, sorry about dredging up an old thread, but I think the shamshir above may be a modified Ottoman issue sabre (see pics).

The below photo was taken by the contemporary Macedonian Greek photographer Leonidas Papazoglou, and some of his other photos show rather appealing qamas stuffed into waistbands: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Ca...das_Papazoglou

Hi Rumpel,

Thank you for finding a picture of Papazoglu with the sword - it looks to be the same sword from the museum.

However, I do not think the guard is actually a cut down from a more elaborate guard as the one on the kilidj from your post - if you look closely at the pictures of the item in the museum, you can see there is no langet going down the grip, but instead the whole thing was cast in a manner, typical of some the qamas of the period.

Best regards,
Teodor