Subject: yeniceri yamakdahi leader of Janissary auxiliaries

Culture: Ottoman Turkish

Setting: Ottoman empire, Balkans/Anatolia 18thc

Object: yatağan yataghan sword

Higgins Armory Museum *

* Sofe Design Gallery

* Higgins Armory Museum > Scimitars to Samurai

"Yataghan (sword) with scabbard, late 1700s Ottoman Turkish

Weight: 1 lb. 12 oz. (yataghan only)" ...

* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor

"Yataghan Steel, silver-gilt, coral Anatolian or Balkan, Ottoman period, dated 1802/3"

"Yataghan Steel, silver, gold coral Anatolian or Balkan, Ottoman period dated 1822"

Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery *

"Swords (yataghan) Turkish, 19th century

The ivory or silver eared hilt with no guard and a recurved blade all typify the yataghan.

These examples are decorated in the late Ottoman style and use

precious and semi-precious materials in their construction,

which combined with gold inlaid poems or Koranic verses

all make the yataghan an interesting adn attractive weapon.

The style of hilt is however very much older:

examples from Luristan with bronze hilts date from 1000 BC."

* Ottoman Swordsmith

* Windlass Steelcrafts