Origins of Kaskara

[ariel]

Finally, responses... :-)
Thanks to Jim and Lew.
The examples from Istanbul have original blades ( early Islamic to ~ 14-15 century), but most handles and crossguards were reworked by the new Ottoman owners. Thus, most have typical slender crossguards. But the original Mamluk examples have very much kaskara-like configuration. some with much shorter quillons.