Ariel,
You have made a lot of remarkable comments on this shashka. Allow me to say my opinions.
1. This blade is definitely remounted. From an elaborate shamshir (possibly) to a plain shashka.
2. Orthodox iconography was not so static as it is commonly belief. Good artists used a lot of expressions and techniques. Virgin Mary’s hair is uncovered. It is not forbidden, it is most unusual.
3. There is a certain western influence in the icons, but only an art historian can tell and I am not.
4. After the fall of Constantinople (1453) some Greek aristocrats and scholars moved to Italy where they remained orthodox but they exchange styles of art with the Catholics.
5. Until Greek revolution (1821), the high rank Greek officials of the Sultan had the right to carry swords with Christian symbols. After that it was forbidden. This blade was not made anywhere in Ottoman empire after 1821, and if you carried it you were a rebel.
6. They were a lot of Greek officers in Tsars army. Also there are Greeks living in Caucasus from ancient times till today.
7. The script is definitely Greek. Not only the lettering but the words. We have a special Greek word for Madonna “Panagia” meaning “All saint” that I think only Greeks use it.
8. The script is written with capital Byzantine letters but the words and the grammar is not Byzantine, it is later. This script is in use till today for church reasons.
9. It says: “Panagia mother of God help your slave (servant) year ….”. The big question for me is this year. I can’t decipher it and I have tried anything I could.
10. There are two ways to read the letters after “year” and some more ways to read the numerals. It is very complicated to explain here, but they don’t lead me anywhere. If it was mine I would ask a byzantinologist help.
11. My conclusion is that the blade made between 1600 and 1800 for a rich Greek man who could afford eastern Damascus and exceptional iconography. Later, most possible after Greek revolution, the blade arrived in Caucasus. The new owner (maybe a child of the same family) remounted the blade to local style. Why he did that? Maybe the original hilt and the scabbard were destroyed, or he didn’t want to show off. Who knows? After that the story goes like other Caucasian weapons.
12. I wrote “a child of the same family” for two reasons. First “nationalistic” speaking, the Greeks don’t give their ancestors weapons except they are forced to. Second, rich Greek families in Ottoman era because of the instability of their status used to spread their belongings in more countries. It was not uncommon the same family to have business in Italy, Turkey and Russia the same time.
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