Afghan Shashkas

[ariel]

To be continued:
Here is a typical very old Circassian shashka between her two Uzbek cousins.
Notice the size difference: Caucasians valued their weapons light and relatively small. I heard the theory that this was due to geography (mountainous and restricted Caucasus vs. open steppes and deserts of Central Asia). I doubt it: there are tons of mountains in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan and one does not need a horizon-wide view to wield a bigger blade. Another hypothesis was the heavy physique of the Central Asians. That is also not likely: one should just see the Chechens, Georgians and the rest of them. These buggers filled half of the Soviet national wrestling team!!
But the handles are very different: almost cylinrical with semicircular "ears" in the case of the Caucasian shashka vs. widened toward the "pommel" that is also quite elongated. Very easy to distinguish.