Dora Boskovic in her book about Yataghans in the collection of the State Muzeum in Zagreb writes that the famous memoires of Baron Franjo von Trent (1711-1749, unit established allegedly in 1743) were a later forgery. Also, using European imid-18-th century iconography of travels through the Balkans with sketches of the exotically-looking locals with their even more exotic weapons, there is not a single yataghan in sight until at least end of 18th century. Thus, she doubts ( or dismisses altogether) the idea of von Trent arming his pandours with yataghans.
I also have my antennae twitching: something is not right about this yataghan, for the same reasons outlined earlier by others. The quality of the blade can be judged only by the current owner, but I cannot believe that any actual yataghan user would have put the handle backwards!
I also do not enjoy passing bad news, sorry....
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