Moroccan " pseudo-shashka"

TVV · 18th March 2019, 07:19 AM

What I find interesting on the sword you are showing Ariel, is the hilt construction - two horn scales riveted to the tang instead of a solid horn piece with the tang peened on the pommel. And then there is also an unusual metal band over the gap in the scales, at least in the back and over the pommel.

The crude look suggests that either whoever made this was not very experienced, or was under some time pressure to deliver a usable sidearm, or both.

midelburgo · 18th March 2019, 10:10 AM

You can give a look to
https://books.google.es/books?id=CN8...rtados&f=false

If these pieces were so common as to find them traveling back to North Africa, there shall be a large amount of them still in Colombia.

I can expect the British Industry making all degrees of quality for export. Even that is good reason for not marking them with a valuable trade mark.

ariel · 18th March 2019, 12:28 PM

Teodor,

Professional Russian weapon historians and dilettante collectors alike put forward one explanation after another of the unusual construction of a Caucasian shashka. Among them is one exactly like yours: shashka is a a simplified version of a saber, kind of an ersatz weapon capable of being serviceable but without a time,- and money - requiring guard. You are also in a very good company of a splendid Latvian author of a book about history of knife fights, Denis Cherevichnik. He also thinks that Sardinian Leppa ( another guardless saber) was a weapon of poor men caring more about cost and simplicity than defensive functionality of guards.

Personally, I cannot exclude that shashka is a homage to the Ottoman Yataghan.

Kirill Rivkin recently published a video blog reviewing new books about Caucasian weapons. In it he mentions a monumental book by a Georgian researcher Mamuka Tsurtsumia that showed a very detailed and fully realistic picture of Georgian warriors wielding guardless sabers and reliably dated to 17 century. Regretfully, the book is in Georgian.
One of our Forumites, Mercenary, managed to unearth a Persian miniature dated to mid-18th century showing a battle of Persian and Afghani armies. Soldiers are shown armed with either “guarded” shamshirs or with guardless sabers ( shashkas?), both versions carefully drawn as such. These iconographic sources prove the existence of a shashka-like weapon 200-300 years earlier than the oldest examples known to us.

ariel · 18th March 2019, 01:36 PM

Midelburgo,

Thanks for the reference. Regretfully, I can’t read it and do not understand what you are referring to. Can you specify?

Interestingly, all 3 examples are marked with the same year and likely with the same die: see number “5”. Was the entire batch of blades shipped to Morocco?

I liked your theory about the Brits marking lousy blades with somebody else’s stamps. Ah, that perfidious Albion:-))))

18th March 2019, 12:28 PM	#3
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Teodor, Professional Russian weapon historians and dilettante collectors alike put forward one explanation after another of the unusual construction of a Caucasian shashka. Among them is one exactly like yours: shashka is a a simplified version of a saber, kind of an ersatz weapon capable of being serviceable but without a time,- and money - requiring guard. You are also in a very good company of a splendid Latvian author of a book about history of knife fights, Denis Cherevichnik. He also thinks that Sardinian Leppa ( another guardless saber) was a weapon of poor men caring more about cost and simplicity than defensive functionality of guards. Personally, I cannot exclude that shashka is a homage to the Ottoman Yataghan. Kirill Rivkin recently published a video blog reviewing new books about Caucasian weapons. In it he mentions a monumental book by a Georgian researcher Mamuka Tsurtsumia that showed a very detailed and fully realistic picture of Georgian warriors wielding guardless sabers and reliably dated to 17 century. Regretfully, the book is in Georgian. One of our Forumites, Mercenary, managed to unearth a Persian miniature dated to mid-18th century showing a battle of Persian and Afghani armies. Soldiers are shown armed with either “guarded” shamshirs or with guardless sabers ( shashkas?), both versions carefully drawn as such. These iconographic sources prove the existence of a shashka-like weapon 200-300 years earlier than the oldest examples known to us. Last edited by ariel; 18th March 2019 at 12:46 PM.

18th March 2019, 07:19 AM	#1
TVV Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,660	What I find interesting on the sword you are showing Ariel, is the hilt construction - two horn scales riveted to the tang instead of a solid horn piece with the tang peened on the pommel. And then there is also an unusual metal band over the gap in the scales, at least in the back and over the pommel. The crude look suggests that either whoever made this was not very experienced, or was under some time pressure to deliver a usable sidearm, or both.

18th March 2019, 01:36 PM	#4
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	Midelburgo, Thanks for the reference. Regretfully, I can’t read it and do not understand what you are referring to. Can you specify? Interestingly, all 3 examples are marked with the same year and likely with the same die: see number “5”. Was the entire batch of blades shipped to Morocco? I liked your theory about the Brits marking lousy blades with somebody else’s stamps. Ah, that perfidious Albion:-))))