Weapons with double curved blades
Scimitar. Place of manufacture: Balkans or Anatolia, 1822 Materials: steel, silver, gold, coral. Total length 74,3 cm. Blade length 56,2 cm. Weight without scabbard: 822,1 g. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Scimitar? Fire?
Be more modest - where is it so loud!
Pain, as familiar to the eyes as a palm,
Like lips -
Your own child's name.
Love (Scimitar, Fire). Marina Tsvetaeva
Be more modest - where is it so loud!
Pain, as familiar to the eyes as a palm,
Like lips -
Your own child's name.
Love (Scimitar, Fire). Marina Tsvetaeva
Weapon from museums. I haven’t come across more stupid poems, but they do contain the word “scimitar”, and it is this type of edged weapon that this material is dedicated to. Although not only one scimitar, but a melee weapon with a double curved blade. We know that a concave blade with a sharpening along its inner side is by no means new. Thousands of years before our era, the khopesh, makhaira, falcata swords, and later the Nepalese kukri, had such blades. But in a scimitar, the blade does not expand towards the tip and does not become heavier, since it remains the same width. However, there are exceptions. For example, a scimitar with a blade widening towards the tip is available in the Golden Gate museum complex in Vladimir. The combination of a relatively light weight (no more than 800 g) and a decent length blade (within 65 cm) gives the scimitar excellent properties as a weapon for close hand-to-hand combat, which is convenient for both chopping and stabbing. Well, the interesting, “eared” shape of its handle is such that it does not allow the weapon to escape from the hand during a strong chopping blow. The very name of this weapon is interesting, which is translated into Russian as “laying”, that is, it means that it puts people to sleep in eternal sleep.
This is the same scimitar. General form
It is believed that the scimitar began to be used in the 16th century. But who came up with such a blade, in which the blade near the hilt deflects down at a rather large angle from the handle, then goes straight and breaks upward again near the tip, is unknown. But thanks to this trick, the tip of the scimitar turned out to be parallel to the handle. This allowed them to stab effectively (that’s why it was sharpened on both sides), but the reverse fracture made it possible to deliver strong cutting blows to the enemy. The straight part of the blade was also important. Firstly, it made it possible to increase its resistance to transverse bending. Secondly, it increased the effective length of the weapon, making it more versatile, unlike the same Persian shamshir or Turkish kilic.
Scimitar of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566). Master Ahmed Tekeli. General form. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Since the scimitar, during a chopping blow, tries to “break out” of the hand due to centrifugal force, a very “cunning handle” was invented for it. It completely covered the lower part of the palm, for which special broadenings (“ears”) were invented on it. So no matter how they chopped it, it could not escape from the hand. That is, he could, of course, but this was a very, very extreme case of complete loss of control over the weapon on the part of its owner. Moreover, it was customary to decorate both the scimitar blade itself and its handle. For this, technological techniques such as metal carving, engraving, notching, and finishing with jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and coral were used. They were worn in a sheath in a belt like daggers. At the same time, the scimitar scabbard is usually wooden, covered with leather.
His hilt
Since the scimitar does not have a guard, its blade is usually designed so that it fits into the sheath along with part of the handle. At the same time, the total length of the scimitar, as noted above, could reach 80 cm with a blade length of about 65 cm and a weight without a sheath of up to 800 g, and with a sheath of about 1200 g. This weapon was by no means only Turkish. It was used in the countries of the Middle East, it was very actively used by the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, as well as South Transcaucasia, and the Crimean Khanate, of course. Although it is known primarily as a specific weapon of the Turkish Janissary warriors.
His blade...
There is a legend that the Sultan forbade them to carry sabers in peacetime. By this he put them in an unequal position in relation to the soldiers of the Turkish Sipahi cavalry. But the Janissaries cleverly circumvented this prohibition by inventing scimitars, which were not sabers, but were not inferior in length to them. By the way, many scimitars came to Russia from the Cossacks, who obtained them as trophies after their successful campaigns. Well, among the Transdanubian Cossacks, who were in the service of the Turkish Sultan, the scimitar was even a “standard weapon”.
The idea of a scimitar, only as a bayonet, was picked up and developed by the French in the 19th century. In particular, French muzzle-loading rifles were equipped with scimitar bayonets. The bend of the scimitar bayonet blade did not interfere with the work of the ramrod. Well, when the bayonet was removed from the gun, it was already a real scimitar, convenient in hand-to-hand combat!
There are several scimitars of truly remarkable workmanship in museums around the world. Among them:
The scimitar of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent is the earliest example of such a weapon, dating back to 1525-1526. The blade is signed by its creator - Ahmed Tekel, and there is also the following inscription on it: “Scimitar of Suleiman the Magnificent" The handle is made of ivory, but has no “ears”. But both she and the blade itself are decorated with a gold notch. The length of the blade is 66 cm, it has a slight bend, and the end of the tip is curved outward. The reverse side of the blade has also been sharpened, so this is not quite a typical scimitar, and, more accurately, this is its early form. The scimitar is in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul
Scimitar from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York with a scabbard trimmed with coral. It should be noted that coral decoration was generally characteristic of Turkish weapons. The handles of pistols, as well as the stocks and butts of guns were decorated with corals.
A second ornate scimitar, also owned by Suleiman the Magnificent and also made by Ahmed Tekel, with a blade length of 46,7 cm, an overall length with hilt of 59,3 cm and a weight without scabbard of 691 g, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
And this is his blade!
The scimitar that belonged to Sultan Bayazid II, made by master Mustafa bin Kamal al-Ashkeri (late 16th century), already has “ears” on the handle and even a hole for a lanyard. Located in the Doha Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar.
It is clear that such scimitars were not combat weapons, but were status weapons, which is why they were so richly decorated. And they came to us only because they belonged to the sultans...
Scimitar with a bone handle in a sheath. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Several scimitar manufacturing centers are known, which has led to the fact that they have their own local characteristics. The Istanbul version of the scimitar, made in Istanbul, is known - these scimitars were of the highest quality, because the best craftsmen worked in the capital; Asia Minor, Balkan, whose “ears” had an angular shape, and the blade itself and scabbard were finished in silver. Scimitars from “eastern Anatolia” (modern Caucasus) were distinguished by their short length and bend. The handle is most often metal, with widely spaced “ears”. It is interesting that the inscriptions on the blades of these scimitars were made with errors and not very carefully. That is, they were clearly copied from Muslim models by craftsmen who did not know Arabic, but who wanted to make weapons “in the oriental style”!
As with Japanese swords, the unusual shape of the scimitar gave rise to a considerable number of myths about it. For example, it was argued that a scimitar could be a throwing weapon and hit an enemy at a distance of up to 30 meters, and the “ears” on the handle served as stabilizers. Another myth is that the scimitar, precisely because of the presence of these “ears,” was used by the Janissaries as a musket stand for shooting... while sitting. The scimitar was also described as a weapon of a mounted warrior, although it was inconvenient for a horseman to use it. This is clearly an infantryman's weapon! By the way, it is interesting that the scimitar was not only a weapon of the Janissaries, but also of the bashi-bazouks (“sick in the head” or “crazy”) - irregular formations of the Turkish army, famous for robberies and atrocities.
London Illustrated, 1880.9.10. An Albanian fights with a Montenegrin, and both of them use scimitars!
There are not only scimitars, but also another example of exotic weapons with reverse sharpening, and in the collection of the Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore. But we will talk about them in the continuation of this article next time...
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