#Yataghan

[baebeylik]

Yataghan sword. Ottoman Empire. 1800s to 1900s CE.

Benaki Museum, Athens.

[handfulsofhistory]

Hilt of a Balkan Yataghan

[cutecuttlefish]

The sword of the day is the yataghan.

This is a Turkish sword, used from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries. Blades ranged in size from long knife to short saber, but all featured a distinctive forward curve. Also, in contrast to most other Ottoman and Arabian sabers, the yataghan typically does not feature a guard. Perhaps the most striking feature of the blade, though, is the pommel. Though not all yataghans had it, the pommel had a distinctive pair of wings or ears that flared out to either side of the weapon. These served to keep the blade securely in the wielder’s hand while swinging it.

[strange-doors]

The rage of the Su Iyesi

Swordtember 2024 day 27- Tempest. Inspired by the Laz Bichaq/Black Sea Yataghan.

[0vvl404]

Морозный воздух спал

В пушистых перьях сов

В ночь я тебя позвал

И ты пошёл на зов

(Канцлер Ги: Вендиго)

Winter vibing starts.

[petermorwood]

Tag duly noted... :->

That's a Black Sea yataghan all right. I reblogged another post about them back in 2019 which is now gone, but I still have the illustrations saved offline.

And that said, IMO (FWTW) calling this a yataghan is something of a misnomer.

English use of foreign* weapon-words in order to categorise everything neatly means that the original meaning, often just "sword" or "knife" or "axe", has become much more specific.

* Including Gaelic, where - depending on source and opinion - a Claymore (claidheamh-mòr / great sword) is either a two-handed sword with a distinctive sloped crossguard or a one-handed sword with a distinctive basket hilt. There are sound reasons for both choices, mostly to do with the period in which each is being used.

In this instance, a "real yataghan" (English labelling) doesn't have its cutting edge on the outside of the curve, like this:

Instead it has the cutting edge on the inside, like this:

In addition, a "real yataghan" doesn't have a grip which ends in long points, like this:

Instead its grip ends in flared "ears", like this:

The Black Sea yataghan's blade looks like an Ancient Egyptian khopesh...

...and this auction site actually uses the word "kopesh" to describe one.

It also resembles (in various degrees) some North African swords, for instance the Tunisian flyssa...

...and the Ethiopian shotel, although that's another weapon sharpened on the inside not outside of the curve...

...and whether those resemblances are anything other than visual has prompted lively discussion on several sites. My use of "real yataghan" for clarity in this post is almost certainly Very Wrong to some people, while Entirely Appropriate to others.

The "real yataghan" is more like an Ancient Iberian falcata or Ancient Greek kopis. I don't know if "kopis" and "khopesh" are linguistically related, but the Iberian and Greek swords are similar enough that one pic will serve for both.

This next one, incidentally, is another flyssa. It's easy to see how things can get thoroughly confused, and a study of arms-trading around the perimeters of the Ottoman Empire might sort things out.

That forward-curved blade has a couple of descendents besides the "real yataghan", whose blade could vary considerably in width while maintaining its forward curve; compare this first one to the flyssa just above:

The sosun pata (patah / pattah) of India sometimes had a "real yataghan" blade...

...and sometimes didn't.

And then there's the Nepalese kukhri (kukri, khukri etc.) of Gurkha fame.

These can vary in size, usually a broad dual-purpose weapon / work-knife but sometimes a narrow short sword, and the reason why is best answered by "It depends on function, preference and regional style".

I prefer my Really Small one.

There's a very specific sword I'm just obsessed with

[literaryvein-reblogs]

a list of "beautiful" words for february

to try to include in your next poem/story

Amadelphous - gregarious; social, sociable

Bienséance - propriety; decorum

Canticle - song

Douceur - a conciliatory gift

Faveolate - having cavities like a honeycomb

Gressorial - adapted for walking

Ignescent - volatile

Libeccio - a southwest wind in Italy

Millefleur - having an allover pattern of small flowers and plants

Noctilucent - visible or glowing at night

Oneiric - of, relating to, or suggestive of dreams; dreamy

Pergameneous - resembling parchment

Quatenus -  the quality or capacity of; as

Rosarium - a rose garden

Uliginous - growing in wet or swampy ground

Ventifact - a stone worn, polished, or faceted by windblown sand

Writative - addicted to writing

Xenial - of, relating to, or constituting hospitality or relations between host and guest and especially among the ancient Greeks between persons of different cities

Yataghan - a long knife or short saber that lacks a guard for the hand at the juncture of blade and hilt and that usually has a double curve to the edge and a nearly straight back

Zelkova - a tall widely spreading Japanese tree (Zelkova serrata) of the elm family that is often used as an ornamental and shade tree in place of the American elm because of its resistance to Dutch elm disease

More: Lists of Beautiful Words ⚜ Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[vladdocs]

CD SHORTS: The Ottomans did not have yataghans in the Middle Ages!

One of the biggest misconceptions in Romanian textbooks and films is that the Ottomans' favorite weapon was a curved sword called a yataghan.

The only truth in this statement is that the weapons in question were indeed curved and made of metal. Beyond that, we are dealing with two entirely different white weapons used in two very distinct historical periods.

The yataghan (yatağan in Ottoman pronunciation) was a type of larger knife, usually slightly curved, with a reinforced back and an inner edge. The yataghan appeared out of nowhere around the end of the 17th century. Experts are still debating its exact origins.

The curved sword used by the Ottomans during the time of Vlad the Impaler and Stephen the Great was called a kılıç, had an outer edge, and was only slightly curved at first. It became more and more curved towards the 19th century when it took on the form it has remained known for.

In addition to the kılıç, its Persian equivalent, the şamşir, was also used, both made of Damascus steel.

[baebeylik]

Turkish yataghans 17th to 19th Century CE. Ottoman Empire.

Imperial Armoury Topkapi Istanbul.

Photo credit to Gryffindor on Wikimedia Commons.

[tlaquetzqui]

Apparently the Swiss and parts of Germany had a two-handed saber that’s pretty much the Aldori dueling sword in Pathfinder. Come to think of it you might make the only-cutting and only-stabbing swords both go one die smaller (like how the scimitar and rapier both do d6, while the “longsword” is d8) but crit on 18+. And make the dueling sword/two-handed saber do 2d4 (or 1d8), like the estoc, and like the estoc need Exotic proficiency to use one-handed. And then a two-handed only one like the elven curve blade at 1d10, along with a 1d10 koncerz (although the real koncerz is one-handed, that’s because it’s a sword that thinks it’s a lance, and unwieldy for normal fighting).

Then the recurve and cut-and-thrust swords both be P/S and have a dagger/kukri, shortsword/kopis, falcata/arming sword, and yataghan/longsword (“bastard sword”)—here ignoring that the Janissary yataghan, specifically, was only as long as the kopis or a large kukri, and often described as a long knife. (There were other yataghans used by other Ottoman forces that were long, including some very long—40 inch overall—ones associated with the Turkomans, which are clearly the bastard-sword equivalent of the recurve-sword family.) I don’t think there are any historic “greatsword” kukri-yataghan swords, but you could certainly get away with it in fantasy.

Maybe you should need Exotic weapon proficiency to use the recurve swords as P weapons? Maybe have backsword and recurve the same (you literally need special training to stab with backswords like sabers and katana), but the recurve crit as 19–20/×3 instead of 18–20? And then your kukri is the shortsword, the kopis at d6 is the “longsword” (=arming sword), the falcata is the “bastard sword” (=longsword), and the yataghan is the greatsword/elven curve blade? Maybe have stilettos, tanto/jambiya, and karda that do 1d3 damage, as the dagger equivalents? And a d4 main-gauche or poignard or something as the thrusting shortsword?

D20 Fantasy games, instead of “buckler (+1), light shield (+1), heavy shield (+2), and tower shield (+4)” should have light shield (because bucklers and light shields—arguably a targe—both give +1 to AC), medium shield that’s a heater shield and +2, heavy shield that’s a kite shield and +3, and then the tower shield that’s a pevise or scutum and +4. Or maybe “buckler (+1), targe or heater shield (+2), kite shield (+3), and pevise or scutum(+4)”, depending how big you want to treat a targe as usually being (also the big Viking shield was round but was also not just a medium shield, so it should also be a heavy shield).

Similarly I’m leaning toward swords being divided into thrusting, cut-and-thrust or arming sword, backsword, and recurve sword, and then divided by size into dagger, short, medium, long, and great. The things now called long and bastard sword would be renamed medium sword (or arming sword) and longsword. And be explicitly statted as both P and S.

Not every list would have all the swords, e.g. the thrusting swords (which only pierce but have an 18–20 crit range) would be stiletto, rapier, estoc, and a koncerz that does d10 like a bastard sword and can be “set” for a charge like a pike. The recurve ones would go kukri, falcata, and then a d10 or even 2d6 big yataghan (the smaller yataghans of course, like the kopis, being falcatas), and you change the kukri from critting 18–20/×2, to critting 19–20/×3, like the falcata—you might also add a d6 version of the kukri (or small falcata—maybe call it a kopis since the later ones were short swords).

[know-o-princess]

The Empire of Matuwali

One of the major powers of the world at the time of this story is the Empire of Matuwali, the successor state which rose from the ashes of the collapse of the (Hittite-inspired) Neshara Empire several centuries prior.

Matuwali is basically a recycled version of ancient Garacania from my Gondolend setting, and like them a lot of Matuwali's style is inspired by the Turkmen people:

Not really geographically apropriate for an ethnic group indigenous to this world's version of the Anatolian peninsula, but this is fiction so shut up.

Many Matuwali nobles carry yataghan swords:

Many are purely ornamental and would make awful weapons in an actual fight.

Since Matuwali is recycled from a previous setting, its culture isn't really analogous to any real-world Late Bronze Age society. Matuwali enjoys total gender equality, with many women occupying normally traditionally male roles and vice-versa. The people of Matuwali don't have separate words for "husband" and "wife," and which one takes their spouse's name upon marriage is typically decided by financial or social status, or simple personal preference. Matuwali society also doesn't really give a shit about sexual orientation; people just like whoever they like, without anyone making even a small deal out of it.

Yemsher, the narrator of the story, is sent by her father, the king of a relatively minor city-state called Dar-Shelem in the fantasy-Levant, to Matuwali for an arranged political marriage. After the marriage her new royal husband encourages her to write down the stories she'd heard on the journey from one of the mercenaries hired to escort her entourage, which is the in-universe reason the story exists in the first place.

[handfulsofhistory]

Yataghan hilts

[toournextadventure]

Glad you like it bestie anyway what weapon do you think Mandalorian Birbs would wield my opinion would be blasters on her gauntlet, plasma shield and a pair of beskads since in the earlier chapters of EBH Birb often wielded sabers . So I think her beskads would be something like a Yataghan since it's light and versatile able to be used for stabbing and slashing good for ambush attacks and prolonged combat it's light weight makes it easier to carry especially in flight Birb definitely made the beskads herself . I think this is how'd it look like.

Anyway thanks for listening to me rant hope you like it

- 🪸

No no, I think beskads are about right. Versatility is something that would be extremely important because you've always gotta prepare for everything, and that's something that Birb would definitely do. Plus blasters of course, because then they're prepared for long range and close range so there's no chance of being caught off guard

[hasufin]

I got a machete.

It's honestly a favored zombie apocalypse weapon, and I could use it.

But honestly I don't think it's a great weapon. Machetes were designed for clearing brush. They're not the best at severing limbs and hewing bone. I mean, if they were then medieval knights would have carried them into battle, you know? You want something with a thicker, stronger spine and a greater reach.

So while a machete is adequate, if I'm being honest my preferred zombie apocalypse melee weapon is a yataghan, or lacking that [I am not lacking that] a nice sharp saber.

Spin this wheel to get a weapon for a zombie apocalypse.

[lovelylexis]

Yataghan

a sword without a guard and typically with a double-curved blade

[talesofpassingtime]

"After that,” continued Georges, “Ali gave me yataghans, and carbines, and scimetars, and what-not. But when we got back to his capital he made me propositions, wanted me to drown a wife, and make a slave of myself, — Orientals are so queer!"

— Honore de Balzac, A Start in Life