Bukharan (?) saber: another "pseudoshashka:-)

ariel · 30th July 2016, 09:30 PM

Just received it 3 days ago and would like to show it around.
This is what we conveniently called " Bukharan shashka", even though it is not a shashka, and may be not from Bukhara, but from Khiva, Samarkand, or even what is now Afghanistan.

What is great about it, is that it is largely intact, with only some very old repairs to the wooden handle. The scabbard has an unusual covering: both throat and chape are made of leather decorated with "eyelets", reminiscent of the scabbards of Central Asian straight Pesh Kabz ( some call them Karud, but it is a separate story:-)). The midsection of the scabbard is tightly bound in smooth leather stitched together,
The blade looks monosteel, but I haven't had time to polish and etch it, so that's he limit of my description for now. About 3/4 of the blade decorated with incised silver.

But the absolute top is the inscription ( repeated on both sides: Shah Ismail Safavi.

Well, I would love to think that this blade belonged once to Ismail I ( Khatami), the big lozer at Chaldiran, or at least to his grandson Ismail II, the mad psychopath, but.... neither of those are likely. Most likely, of course, it was a kind of dedication to one of them. However, both lived in the 16 century, so, with a lot of luck and wishful thinking, one may posit that the dedication was to the actual Big Kahoona ruling at that time :-))

I wish:-))))

Would love to hear from all of you.

30th July 2016, 09:30 PM	#1
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Bukharan (?) saber: another "pseudoshashka:-) Just received it 3 days ago and would like to show it around. This is what we conveniently called " Bukharan shashka", even though it is not a shashka, and may be not from Bukhara, but from Khiva, Samarkand, or even what is now Afghanistan. What is great about it, is that it is largely intact, with only some very old repairs to the wooden handle. The scabbard has an unusual covering: both throat and chape are made of leather decorated with "eyelets", reminiscent of the scabbards of Central Asian straight Pesh Kabz ( some call them Karud, but it is a separate story:-)). The midsection of the scabbard is tightly bound in smooth leather stitched together, The blade looks monosteel, but I haven't had time to polish and etch it, so that's he limit of my description for now. About 3/4 of the blade decorated with incised silver. But the absolute top is the inscription ( repeated on both sides: Shah Ismail Safavi. Well, I would love to think that this blade belonged once to Ismail I ( Khatami), the big lozer at Chaldiran, or at least to his grandson Ismail II, the mad psychopath, but.... neither of those are likely. Most likely, of course, it was a kind of dedication to one of them. However, both lived in the 16 century, so, with a lot of luck and wishful thinking, one may posit that the dedication was to the actual Big Kahoona ruling at that time :-)) I wish:-)))) Would love to hear from all of you. Attached Images