Afghan Shashkas

ham · 27th June 2005, 05:58 PM

Gentlemen,

Other than a passing similarity, I don't believe there is any formal relationship between the shashka and these Afghan sabers. Rather, they are very late 19th century developments based upon Central Asian, specifically Bukharan, weapons. Most of them were assembled at Mazar-i-Sharif arsenal, thus the high percentage of blades struck with this mark (I think Jim went into detail on this in another thread a few days ago.)
What took place was a three-tiered evolution-- and what we are seeing in the images above is the final one. See T. Flindt's article in Elgood's Islamic Arms and Armour on Bukharan arms p. 21-23 for the first form-- the grips were adapted to a relatively light saber blade directly from the pesh qabz and were made of horn, ivory, actively grained or burled wood and in some cases, jade. They were attached to the tang with 5 large rivets. In the second form, the grips became narrower, the ears more arched and the ferrule was made in metal, usually silver-- this shows influence from a particular variant of kard-grips used in N. India. Blades of this form tend to be lighter than in the first. The Moser Collection contains several examples of this type, see Orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser Charlottenfels p. 342. They are often richly decorated; some in the Ermitaj, St. Petersburg are gilded and paved with turquoises.
The final evolution is the Afghan military design based on the latter, virtually always gripped in the same tough but plain wood from which gunstocks were cut. Mounts tend to be plain iron though occasionally one finds engraved silver as in the image above-- in no example of which I am aware do these engraved motifs approximate those usually found on shashkas in the slightest-- they are typically Afghan. Sabers with pommels which duplicate those found on shashkas appear to date to the last period of production 1890s- 1920s when there would have been ample opportunity to copy them directly, however this factor did not contribute to the evolution of the form. Another saber of this type which directly emulates a shashka is in the Linden Ethnographic Museum, Stuttgart. It was copied inch by inch from a shashka down to the belt with small silver fittings but is not to my knowledge published.

Sincerely,

Ham

ariel · 27th June 2005, 07:01 PM

Interesing.
Can you post pics from that article substantiating the evolution story?

27th June 2005, 05:58 PM	#1
ham Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 190	Gentlemen, Other than a passing similarity, I don't believe there is any formal relationship between the shashka and these Afghan sabers. Rather, they are very late 19th century developments based upon Central Asian, specifically Bukharan, weapons. Most of them were assembled at Mazar-i-Sharif arsenal, thus the high percentage of blades struck with this mark (I think Jim went into detail on this in another thread a few days ago.) What took place was a three-tiered evolution-- and what we are seeing in the images above is the final one. See T. Flindt's article in Elgood's Islamic Arms and Armour on Bukharan arms p. 21-23 for the first form-- the grips were adapted to a relatively light saber blade directly from the pesh qabz and were made of horn, ivory, actively grained or burled wood and in some cases, jade. They were attached to the tang with 5 large rivets. In the second form, the grips became narrower, the ears more arched and the ferrule was made in metal, usually silver-- this shows influence from a particular variant of kard-grips used in N. India. Blades of this form tend to be lighter than in the first. The Moser Collection contains several examples of this type, see Orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser Charlottenfels p. 342. They are often richly decorated; some in the Ermitaj, St. Petersburg are gilded and paved with turquoises. The final evolution is the Afghan military design based on the latter, virtually always gripped in the same tough but plain wood from which gunstocks were cut. Mounts tend to be plain iron though occasionally one finds engraved silver as in the image above-- in no example of which I am aware do these engraved motifs approximate those usually found on shashkas in the slightest-- they are typically Afghan. Sabers with pommels which duplicate those found on shashkas appear to date to the last period of production 1890s- 1920s when there would have been ample opportunity to copy them directly, however this factor did not contribute to the evolution of the form. Another saber of this type which directly emulates a shashka is in the Linden Ethnographic Museum, Stuttgart. It was copied inch by inch from a shashka down to the belt with small silver fittings but is not to my knowledge published. Sincerely, Ham Last edited by ham; 27th June 2005 at 06:16 PM.

27th June 2005, 07:01 PM	#2
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Interesing. Can you post pics from that article substantiating the evolution story?