Short sword (yataghan) of steel, rhinoceros ivory and gold with scabbard of wood, textile, gold, and silver 

The Janissaries – the legendary elite corps of the Ottomans – are often depicted carrying a single-edged sword with a forward-curving blade and a short hilt with no guard. Known as a yataghan, the type became widespread throughout the eastern Mediterranean region between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.¹ This yataghan originates from one of the North African ‘Barbary’ States, which in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries engaged in extensive piracy against European ships with the blessing of the Ottomans.

The blade itself is slender, slightly curved and has a clearly visible watered pattern. The transition between blade and grip is decorated with embossed gold sheet, and the grip itself consists of two plaques of rhinoceros ivory separated by a narrow gold band. The hilt thickens towards the upper end, which prevents the sword from slipping out of the wielder’s grasp. Hilts terminating in this manner are characteristic of the yataghan and in other cases the thickened section can take the form of round ‘ears’.

The scabbard is made of wood covered in velvet, which in turn is almost completely covered by two gold casings with embossed and engraved decorations. The decorations on the locket include an arrangement of standards and cannon barrels, while the chape covering the lower part of the scabbard is adorned with seashells and wide-mouthed flower vases. This type of European-inspired ornamentation is known as ‘Turkish Rococo’ (see 31/1987).

The kings of Europe sent many diplomatic missions to the Barbary States, and yataghans embellished with gold were often among the gifts brought back by the diplomats. In the year 1800, the Danish naval commander Georg Albrecht Kofoed (1753–1808) received a similar yataghan from the prince of Algiers.²