Mystery Weapons from Bulgaria

[TVV]

Originally Posted by Rivkin

I'm really surprised to see such "caucasian" models being worn by greeks, bolgarians and other balkan nationals.
The reason being that I don't remember straight kindjals being popular among ottoman forces, I always thought they actually started to appear more towards the end of XIX century (there are probably 6 million circassians in Turkey today, so this is being one of the most important reasons).

I'm also surprized to read that circassians left an imprint on bolgarian society - I always thought that anti-circassian feelings were prevalent among balkan nations.

Are there any shashkas in Bolgaria ?

Rivkin, you are right in believing that Circassians were not welcomed by Bulgarians in a period of rising nationalism and liberation struggles, as they were brought to the Balkans to strengthen Ottoman authority, and they indeed acted as irregulars in the Ottoman army. However, Bulgarians in those times were fond of Cossacks, whom they associated with the Russians, and at the end it was Russia that brought liberation to Bulgaria after almost five centuries under the Ottomans. Therefore, kindjals and qamas may have not necessarily been associated with the Circassians only, but with the Cossacks too.
I also think that Christian outlaws and revolutionaries did not care that much about the origin of their weapons, as I have seen pictures of Bulgarian revolutionaries with kilidjes, yataghans and kindjals. As weapons were not that easy to obtain even for the ones residing outside of the Ottoman Empire, in Wallachia for example, I guess any good weapon would be used by them.
As far as shashkas, there are shashkas in Bulgaria, but not so many of Caucasus origin. They came into Bulgaria mainly through Bulgarian revolutionaries who excaped to Russia and lived and/or studied there. Some came with the Cossack regiments during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78. In the years immediately following the liberation there were many Russian officers stationed in Bulgaria, as the young Bulgarian state did not have its own officers. In the war of 1885 with Serbia, there was no official sword pattern in Bulgaria and Bulgarian officers and cavalry used the Russian shashka patterns. Many shashkas, mainly of the dragoon pattern were captured during WWI in the Eastern theater. As a result, there are plenty of shashkas in Bulgaria, but most of them are military issue ones, and not so many are what we would consider ethnographic.