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Originally Posted by estcrh
Jim, I see no reason why this would be a shashka, the Circassians used shashka and were heavily involved with the Ottoman forces and later the New Turkish governmant forces following their exile from Russia, they are mentioned quite frequently along with a few other ethnic groups including the Zeybek as irregular forces used in military campaigns during the 1800s and into the 1900s. This sword could have been an attempt to display alignment/allegiance with the Ottoman/Turkish forces by a Circassian.
On the other hand....it could have also been a war trophy captured during one of the militry conflicts between the Ottomans/Turkish forces and the Russians that was latter Ottomanized a bit by its new Ottoman/Turkish owner with the addition of a guard and cresent.
There are some examples of Ottoman mounted shashkas that I have seen, it would have been helpful if Harrys new sword had come with a scabbard as well.
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Estcrh, thanks for the great insight and for the agreement with my observation about the Caucasians (Circassians) in Ottoman service.
As I had noted, "it is not a shashka per se'" thus NOT actually a shashka but a weapon composite using the general form plus crossguard.
Agree, a scabbard always is helpful when evaluating these kinds of composite items...but this one still very intriguing.