Pandours

[Valjhun]

Gentlemen,

Since Jim mentioned them a couple of times:

The Pandours were essentially auxiliary units of the Austrian army during the reign of Maria Theresa, who very much influenced subsequent units that were added to the armies of several other European powers.
These swords were basically fighting variants of 'hunting' swords, or couteaux de chasse and these evolved from similar hunting or riding swords of the 17th century. The Pandour examples were of mid 18th century, and this example may be one of the form probably used by as a fighting sabre by European officer in one of the latter auxiliary units modeled on the Pandour regiments. An illustration of these Austrian Pandour attributed swords is found in "Les Armes Traditionelles de l'Europe Centrale" by I. Lebedynsky (p.69) and the deep bellied blade is virtually the same. While the decidedly oriental crossguard seems atypical, one of the key elements of the dress of these Pandour styled units was the fearsome appearance enhanced by varied and fearsome looking oriental garb, scalplocks and drooping mustaches etc.
It would not seem unusual that such a guard might have been added on one of these swords.

While the seller is correct in degree by the statement that there were components of Austro-Hungary's forces who did use some forms of the yataghan, the obvious presence of the tuhgra on the blade would preclude that including this Ottoman example. The components I refer to were the 'pandours' who were irregular mercenary forces assembled from frontier guards and private militia type troops that came from regions in Croatia primarily, as well as Slovenian.
While assemblages of Balkan troops from widely varying regions comprised these pandour units, and the possibility of certain Balkan form of yataghans is plausible, it should be noted that those participating typically fought against Ottoman forces, and use of an Ottoman yataghan, even captured, would seem unlikely. The Balkan yataghan forms are also noticeably different in the hilts, which typically have a studded appearance.

The often referenced 'yataghan' sidearms typically carried by pandours were of the hunting sword type (couteau de chasse) and had a 'karabela' type hilt in profile which often had a degree of cleft pommel, which presumably led to the yataghan descriptive term

I've became verry courius about them. I'm from Slovenia and an interesting fact is that the word pandour still exists in Slovenian language, actually in the Dolenjska dialect.The dolenjska region covers about 1/5 of slovenia and it is located south, along the Croatia border. Beeing a rich farming region it is blossoming with history, there a lot of castels ecc. The people were very stiff (and still are ) farmers. Some of the biggest and bloodiest peasant risings in central europe had their epicenter here. Oh yes, almost forgot, The word pandour is a scoffy word for policemen.

I've done some search in slovenian literature, but I haven't found nothing yet.

Who exactly were they?
Were they mercenaries?
How were they dressed? Uniforms??
Had their own officers and commanders?
Were they cavalry mounted units?
Is there any historical paintings depicting pandours?
Is there any book in english talking about them?
And, what weapons they used?

[wolviex]

From Polish Military Encyclopaedia, printed long tome ago, before the II WW so some informations might be out of date:

Pandours - from the beginning armed servants of magnates or even town clerks in Croatia and Slavonia, used as security service. In Hungary the troops formed of Pandours were rather irregular infantry. During the Austrian Succesion War 1701-1713 these troops were already mentioned as part of Imperial Army. In 1741 during 7Years War, Francis Trenck created squad of Croatian Pandours of 1000 men, as light infantry which, as of great merit, was enlarged to 2500 men in 1744. Known because of their bravery and of skills in individual fight, were used especially in mountain terrains, and soon Empire decided to creat more squads of Hungarian and Croatian Pandours. But at the same time those people were know as savages and plunderers, especially for civilian people, often dangerous for allies armies. In time Pandours were recreated as borders guards. In 1751 Pandours troops were created in Russia, of Serbian People from south of Russia. It was one infantry and one mounted (Hungarian) regiment. In 1752 there were created other 2 regiments but all of them were dismissed in 1764.

Sorry for crude translating