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.
