Found on Letgo for50 bucks !

[Bruce R]

WW-1 era Ottoman Empire light cavalry sword. Told the young kid who had it that it was worth more but he wouldn’t believe me cause his dad said it was just a decorative piece, he wanted $ 50 so that’s what I gave him.

 

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[Truth]

WW-1 era Ottoman Empire light cavalry sword. Told the young kid who had it that it was worth more but he wouldn’t believe me cause his dad said it was just a decorative piece, he wanted $ 50 so that’s what I gave him.View attachment 1589814View attachment 1589816View attachment 1589817View attachment 1589818

Dang that is super nice!!!! Congratulations

 

[against the wind]

Nice save,, what is it really worth?

 

[Truth]

This is the only thing I saw by me. Lol

 

[Hawks88]

Looks to be in great shape .. congratulations.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Very nice. Not very often you have to talk someone into taking more money, and they still wont !

 

[Oddjob]

Its a pretty nice reproduction; if they would had gotten the Star Crescent symbol correct for the era then you would not be able to tell it is a reproduction from your pictures. Still cleaned up though I would bet you could get about 250-300 bucks for it.

 

[Bruce R]

Hey O.J. , whats wrong with the marking ? I’ve been looking at them on the net and there’s as many variations of it as there are sword makers. I’ve taken it down and hand polished it, it’s definitely real. Here’s one just like it :. Heres mine broken down, there’s certainly 100 yrs worth of crud and rust in it. Anybody read turkish ?

 

[Bruce R]

Nice save,, what is it really worth?

Don’t know for sure yet, I’ll take it along to the Allentown gun show in July, theres a guy that sets up there with lots of Ottoman stuff. Seen one similar on ebay for 275 and another on Wittmann Militaria for 495.

 

[Oddjob]

Hey O.J. , whats wrong with the marking ? I’ve been looking at them on the net and there’s as many variations of it as there are sword makers. I’ve taken it down and hand polished it, it’s definitely real. Here’s one just like it :View attachment 1590267. Heres mine broken down, there’s certainly 100 yrs worth of crud and rust in it.View attachment 1590268 Anybody read turkish ? View attachment 1590269

Yes I read Turkish, first PhD was Ottoman History, but that is Arabic for 1666 if you turn it over.

Its the Star, it is facing the wrong direction. In the 50s a great deal of left over surplus was being sold off, like the blade you have there or the scabbard, but they where not complete. This was the case with many things from from Helmets, knives, all sorts of stuff. There was a company out of Pakistan reproducing certain items, in this case the handle on the sword, well the brass.

Back when I was doing my studies there I had asked why some of these swords had era correct Star Crescents and others did not. Ones like yours could be purchased in the markets, and can still be in places like Dalaman. There are only about of of us around the world that actually have a PhD in Ottoman history, it is certainly the most fascinating, but not the most popular, few ever even reach a Masters. Half of the people claim it is because the Government at the times did not want the counterfeit to be an insult to the Great Islamic history, others said it was just a mistake. Some speculated that it was due to tensions between India and Pakistan and the village where the brass work was done in Pakistan was not a friend of Islam, that is plausible for sure, but highly unlikely considering those times between India and Pakistan.

The Ottomans throughout history where known for the re-purpose or reuse of military weapons, mainly there blades. Case in point is the Kilij, clearly, and it did not just start before the Ottomans, thrived during the Ottoman Empires but was picked up around the world and is still in use today.

My thoughts on the matter is that considering the times they where taking old surplus that was not complete and contracting items to complete it, is that it was old Ottomans or their children that still supported many of the traditional ways (no all ways), and they saw that this is an easy and much needed way to bring in money on 130,000+ swords blades alone laying around, but it would be either an insult to Islam or (more plausible) an insult to the Kilij history its self.

In your case, you get a real blade and scabbard, its like buying an Enfield in the middle east, a few parts of it are going to be real, whilst others had gotten the Pakistani Touch.

 

[Bruce R]

I don’t get you, how does a star “ face “ The only difference I’ve noticed is the orientation of the points, and after looking at a gazillion images of Ottoman flags, swords and other relics the points are all around the compass, some are like mine, some are not.