Ethnographic Arms & Armour - A new article on Central Asian shashkas

Thank you for sharing yet another brilliant work by Dima!!!

This has long been a fascinating topic, and I recall acquiring my only example of one of these years ago when they were quite rarely seen here in most US collecting (90s). There were some fascinating, intense discussions some years ago here, and many of the guys had outstanding examples of these.....they have long gone from this forum unfortunately.

When I first acquired this in auction in London, it was classified as saber from Uzbekistan. In the following years I tried to determine whether this was indeed Uzbek or Afghan. Actually neither Mr. Flindt nor Iaroslav Lebedynsky would say adamantly, but suggested it was probably Afghan. In those days, despite Torben Flindts 1979 article which definitively showed the Bukharen saber with its hilt shape resembling the pesh kabz form. Lebedynsky in his "Les Armes Orientales" 1992 showed Afghan examples terming them psuedo shashkas.

It seems that the 'name game', which brought endless consternation on these pages was very much at play. As Dima notes, the term shashka was not widely known nor used in English sources, nor apparently Afghan , and seems to have derived from Russian interpretation of a Caucasian dialectic word for swords.
It seems generally held that Bukharen sabers developed independently of the Caucasian shashka, and the Afghan much the same. However their profound similarity to the Caucasian examples, which of course influenced the shashkas of the Russian Cossack units could not be ignored in western observation.

It seems that inherently the Afghan hilt is different, with the bolster and three rivets, as in my example. It is notable that the fluted scabbard chape is seen often on scabbards of Afghan paluoars.