Afghan shashkas

[Mercenary]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

"The Great Game"

I think that Central Asian shashkas are just “cousins” of Caucasian (and later Russian) ones, and not a direct borrowing. They often resemble Khyber knives in design.
The common ancestor of all types of shashkas I think were the knives of the mountain robbers of Eastern Iraq of the 15-16 centuries.