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Old 4th August 2020, 05:58 AM   #5
TVV
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There are multiple yataghans from the 19th century that carry earlier dates to the 16th and 17th centuries. Why, I am not sure: maybe it was a reference to some date of importance to the owner or maybe it was the decorator's intent to add value to the blade. For example, in the Askeri Museum catalogue there is a 19th century yataghan with an Epirus hilt that has a very early date. There is another yataghan in the Military Museum in Sofia with an early date as well that otherwise looks very much like any other 19th century Balkan yataghan with a large walrus hilt.

Now, it is possible that those may be older blades that got rehilted. The issue is that earlier yataghans have slightly different blades, as one can see for example on captured arms from the second siege of Vienna - they tend to have a much wider blade and belly (apologies for the poor picture, but it gives a good idea of what I mean). The blade in this topic looks nothing like those 17th century examples, but looks very much like 19th century blades, as Marius already pointed out.

All this being said this is a nice Greek yataghan (based on the hilt) and it will be interesting to see what the rest of the inscription reads.
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