Zeybeks
Zeybeks or sometimes Zeibeks, were irregular militia and guerrilla fighters living in the Aegean Region of the Ottoman Empire from late 17th to early 20th centuries. Τhe population in its constitution was consisted of islamized Greeks. Before the Treaty of Lausanne and the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, larger concentrations of Zeybeks could be found on the Aegean coast of western Anatolia, near the city of Smyrna. After the Greek invasion of Smyrna they fought against the Greek occupation of western Turkey. Following the formation of a Turkish national army, during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, most of them joined the regular forces and continued their resistance, they acted, traditionally, as protectors of village people against landlords and tax collectors. A leader of a Zeybek gang was called Efe and his soldiers were known as either Zeybeks or Kızan. Kızan was used for newly recruited or inexperienced Zeybeks. There was a tribe democracy in group. Decisions were made in a democratic way and after the decision was made, Efe had an uncontroversial authority.
They followed definite rituals for all actions. Zeybeks had a dance called Zeibekiko. Romantic songs about their bravery are still popular in Greek folk music; the yatagan sword was their primary weapon. Efe, the leaders of bands of Zeybeks and Kızan Zeibekiko and Zeybek Bashi Bazouk Atçalı Kel Mehmet Yörük Ali Efe Çakırcalı Mehmet Efe Hajduk Publication, "American-Hellenic Society", page 18 Onur Akdogu, "Bir Başkaldırı Öyküsü Zeybekler, Cilt 1 - 3 Tarihi - Ezgileri - Dansları", İzmir, Turkey, 2004 Views of the "outlaw concept" in comparative perspective: "The American West" and the "Zeybeks" in the Turk lands, H. B. Paksoy
Sword bayonet
A sword bayonet is any long, knife-bladed bayonet designed for mounting on a musket or rifle. Its use is thought to have begun in the 18th century and to have reached its height of popularity throughout the 19th and into the early 20th centuries; when unmounted from a musket or rifle, sword bayonets with their typical hilts and long blades could be wielded as short swords. While modern military bayonets have knife blades, they are too short to be called sword bayonets and are more akin to fighting/utility knives. Sword bayonets originated for use with muzzle-loading rifles. A typical example of an early sword bayonet is the 58 centimetre blade variety designed for the Infantry rifle called the Baker rifle of the Napoleonic era British Army. Most infantry would keep bayonets fixed to their inaccurate smooth bore muskets throughout a battle. Close order ranks and squares presented a hedge of bayonets to the enemy, useful for deterring cavalry, but a fixed bayonet - a pound or so of extra metal on the front of a firearm - affects a firearm’s balance and hampers accurate shooting.
However, Mosin-Nagant rifles using cruciform and dagger bayonets were arsenal zeroed with them affixed as they affect point-of-impact via barrel harmonics, in the case of Imperial Russian and Soviet battle doctrine dictated they were always affixed. A rifleman fought without a fixed bayonet since accuracy was the whole purpose of their rifled weapon, he therefore required a side-arm that could be drawn and used in an emergency so his bayonet had a cutting edge and a grippable hilt. That such bayonets were far heavier than standard socket bayonets was not a disadvantage since they were fixed. Most riflemen found. On occasion riflemen did form up in close order. Since rifles were shorter than muskets their bayonets needed to be longer to produce the same total length; as well as rifle regiments, other soldiers whose battlefield role did not involve standing shoulder to shoulder in ranks, notably sergeants came to use sword bayonets. By the end of the nineteenth century all infantry had become riflemen and the sword bayonet had become the standard infantry bayonet.
Bayonets lost their popularity after World War I. While sword bayonets can be effective as short swords, they proved to be too unwieldy in cramped quarters in trench warfare, although spike bayonets continued to be used throughout most of the 20th century. A shorter version of the sword bayonet, the knife bayonet, was developed. Today, the majority of modern bayonets are knife bayonets. With the appearance of the hiltless sword bayonet, such as the socket-mounted variety, their use on the end of the musket or rifle became a hindrance during the reloading of the muzzle-loaded longarm. A bayonet of similar style and dimension was used on the Lee–Enfield rifle of the early 20th century; the advantages of sword bayonets over spike bayonets are evident. Where a spike bayonet turns the rifle into a spear, a sword bayonet turns it into a glaive. Unlike spike bayonets, which can be used only for thrusting, sword bayonets can be used for slashing, except for the épée bayonets. Twisting a sword bayonet in the wound was lethal.
Before the advent of modern medicine after World War I, a soldier struck by a sword bayonet was unlikely to survive. While most sword bayonets have straight blades, a popular variant in the 19th century featured sinuous, S-curved blades like those found on the Balkan's and Middle-East's sword called the yataghan. Today, sword bayonets of this style are said to have "yataghan" blades, or to be "yataghan-bladed". Bayonets lost their popularity after World War I. While sword bayonets can be effective as short swords, they proved to be too unwieldy in cramped quarters in trench warfare, although spike bayonets continued to be used throughout most of the 20th century. A shorter version of the sword bayonet, the knife bayonet, was developed. Today, the majority of modern bayonets are knife bayonets. While most sword bayonets have straight blades, a popular variant in the 19th century featured sinuous, S-curved blades like those found on the Balkan's and Middle-East's sword called the yataghan. Today, sword bayonets of this style are said to have "yataghan" blades, or to be "yataghan-bladed".
World Bayonets
Hilt
The hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard and pommel. The guard may contain quillons. A ricasso may be present, but this is the case. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the pommel; the pommel is an enlarged fitting at the top of the handle. They were developed to prevent the sword slipping from the hand. From around the 11th century in Europe they became heavy enough to be a counterweight to the blade; this gave the sword a point of balance not too far from the hilt allowing a more fluid fighting style. Depending on sword design and swordsmanship style, the pommel may be used to strike the opponent. Pommels have appeared in a wide variety of shapes, including oblate spheroids, disks and animal or bird heads, they are engraved or inlayed with various designs and gilt and mounted with jewels. Ewart Oakeshott introduced a system of classification of medieval pommel forms in his The Sword in the Age of Chivalry to stand alongside his blade typology. Oakeshott pommel types are enumerated with capital letters A–Z, with subtypes indicated by numerals.
The grip is the handle of the sword. It was of wood or metal, covered with shagreen. Shark skin proved to be the most durable in temperate climates but deteriorated in hot climates, rubber became popular in the latter half of the 19th century. Alternatively, many sword types opt for ray skin instead, referred to in katana construction as the "same". Whatever material covered the grip, it was both glued on and held on with wire wrapped around it in a helix, it is a common misconception that the cross-guard protects the user's entire hand from the opponent's sword. Only with the abandonment of the shield and the armoured gauntlet did a full hand guard become necessary; the crossguard still protected the user from a blade, deliberately slid down the length of the blade to cut off or injure the hand. Early swords do not have true guards but a form of stop to prevent the hand slipping up the blade when thrusting as they were invariably used in conjunction with a shield. From the 11th century, European sword guards took the form of a straight crossbar perpendicular to the blade.
Beginning in the 16th century in Europe, guards became more and more elaborate, with additional loops and curved bars or branches to protect the hand. A single curved piece alongside the fingers was referred to as a knuckle-bow; the bars could be supplemented or replaced with metal plates that could be ornamentally pierced. The term "basket hilt" came into vogue to describe such designs, there are a variety of basket-hilted swords. Emphasis upon the thrust attack with rapiers and smallswords revealed a vulnerability to thrusting. By the 17th century, guards were developed that incorporated a solid shield that surrounded the blade out to a diameter of up to two inches or more. Older forms of this guard retained the quillons or a single quillon, but forms eliminated the quillons, altogether being referred to as a cup-hilt; this latter form is the basis of the guards of modern épées. The ricasso is a blunt section of blade just below the guard. On developed hilts it is protected by an extension of the guard.
On two-handed swords, the ricasso provided a third hand position, permitting the user's hands to be further apart for better leverage. The sword knot or sword strap, sometimes called a tassel, is a lanyard—usually of leather but sometimes of woven gold or silver bullion, or more metallic lace—looped around the hand to prevent the sword being lost if it is dropped. Although they have a practical function, sword knots had a decorative design. For example, the British Army adopted a white leather strap with a large acorn knot made out of gold wire for infantry officers at the end of the 19th century; such acorn forms of tassels were called'boxed', the way of securing the fringe of the tassel along its bottom line such that the strands could not separate and become entangled or lost. Many sword knots were made of silk with a fine, ornamental alloy gold or silver metal wire woven into it in a specified pattern; the art and history of tassels are known by its French name, passementerie, or Posamenten as it was called in German.
The military output of the artisans called passementiers is evident in catalogs of various military uniform and regalia makers of centuries past. The broader art form of passementerie, with its divisions of Decor and Nobility, Upholstery and Livery, Military, is covered in a few books on that subject, none of which are in English. Indian swords had the tassel attached through an eyelet at the end of the pommel. Chinese swords, both jian and dao have lanyards or tassels attached; as with Western sword knots, these serve both decorative and practical functions, the manipulation of the tassel is a part of some jian performances. The hilt ring is an optional item used for decoration
Kopis
The term kopis in Ancient Greece could describe a heavy knife with a forward-curving blade used as a tool for cutting meat, for ritual slaughter and animal sacrifice, or refer to a single edged cutting or "cut and thrust" sword with a shaped blade. The kopis sword was a one-handed weapon. Early examples had a blade length of up to 65 cm, making it equal in size to the spatha. Macedonian examples tended to be shorter with a blade length of about 48 cm; the kopis had a single-edged blade that pitched forward towards the point, the edge being concave on the part of the sword nearest the hilt, but swelling to convexity towards the tip. This shape termed "recurved", distributes the weight in such a way that the kopis was capable of delivering a blow with the momentum of an axe, whilst maintaining the long cutting edge of a sword and some facility to execute a thrust; some scholars have claimed an Etruscan origin for the sword, as such swords have been found as early as the 7th century BC in Etruria.
The kopis is compared to the contemporary Iberian falcata and the more recent, shorter, Nepalese kukri. The word itself is a Greek feminine singular noun; the difference in meaning between kopis and makhaira is not clear in ancient texts, but modern specialists tend to discriminate between single-edged cutting swords, those with a forward curve being classed as kopides, those without as makhairai. The Ancient Greeks used single-edged blades in warfare, as attested to by art and literature. Greek heavy infantry hoplites favored straight swords, but the downward curve of the kopis made it suited to mounted warfare; the general and writer Xenophon recommended the single edged kopis sword for cavalry use in his work On Horsemanship. The precise wording of Xenophon's description suggests the possibility that the kopis was regarded as a specific variant within a more general class, with the term makhaira denoting any single-edged cutting sword. Greek art shows Persian soldiers wielding the kopis or an axe rather than the straight-bladed Persian akinakes.
It has been suggested that the yatagan, used in the Balkans and Anatolia during the Ottoman Period, was a direct descendant of the kopis. Falcata Kukri Khopesh Makhaira Xiphos Iron Age sword Illustration of Kopis in Ancient Greek Art
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historical period characterized by the use of bronze, in some areas proto-writing, other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second principal period of the three-age Stone-Bronze-Iron system, as proposed in modern times by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen, for classifying and studying ancient societies. An ancient civilization is defined to be in the Bronze Age either by producing bronze by smelting its own copper and alloying with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or by trading for bronze from production areas elsewhere. Bronze itself is harder and more durable than other metals available at the time, allowing Bronze Age civilizations to gain a technological advantage. Copper-tin ores are rare, as reflected in the fact that there were no tin bronzes in Western Asia before trading in bronze began in the third millennium BC. Worldwide, the Bronze Age followed the Neolithic period, with the Chalcolithic serving as a transition. Although the Iron Age followed the Bronze Age, in some areas, the Iron Age intruded directly on the Neolithic.
Bronze Age cultures differed in their development of the first writing. According to archaeological evidence, cultures in Mesopotamia and Egypt developed the earliest viable writing systems; the overall period is characterized by widespread use of bronze, though the place and time of the introduction and development of bronze technology were not universally synchronous. Human-made tin bronze technology requires set production techniques. Tin must be mined and smelted separately added to molten copper to make bronze alloy; the Bronze Age was a time of developing trade networks. A 2013 report suggests that the earliest tin-alloy bronze dates to the mid-5th millennium BC in a Vinča culture site in Pločnik, although this culture is not conventionally considered part of the Bronze Age; the dating of the foil has been disputed. Western Asia and the Near East was the first region to enter the Bronze Age, which began with the rise of the Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer in the mid 4th millennium BC.
Cultures in the ancient Near East practiced intensive year-round agriculture, developed a writing system, invented the potter's wheel, created a centralized government, written law codes and nation states and empires, embarked on advanced architectural projects, introduced social stratification and civil administration and practiced organized warfare and religion. Societies in the region laid the foundations for astronomy and astrology. Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The Ancient Near East Bronze Age can be divided as following: The Hittite Empire was established in Hattusa in northern Anatolia from the 18th century BC. In the 14th century BC, the Hittite Kingdom was at its height, encompassing central Anatolia, southwestern Syria as far as Ugarit, upper Mesopotamia. After 1180 BC, amid general turmoil in the Levant conjectured to have been associated with the sudden arrival of the Sea Peoples, the kingdom disintegrated into several independent "Neo-Hittite" city-states, some of which survived until as late as the 8th century BC.
Arzawa in Western Anatolia during the second half of the second millennium BC extended along southern Anatolia in a belt that reaches from near the Turkish Lakes Region to the Aegean coast. Arzawa was the western neighbor – sometimes a rival and sometimes a vassal – of the Middle and New Hittite Kingdoms; the Assuwa league was a confederation of states in western Anatolia, defeated by the Hittites under an earlier Tudhaliya I, around 1400 BC. Arzawa has been associated with the much more obscure Assuwa located to its north, it bordered it, may be an alternative term for it. In Ancient Egypt the Bronze Age begins in the Protodynastic period, c. 3150 BC. The archaic early Bronze Age of Egypt, known as the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt follows the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt, c. 3100 BC. It is taken to include the First and Second Dynasties, lasting from the Protodynastic Period of Egypt until about 2686 BC, or the beginning of the Old Kingdom. With the First Dynasty, the capital moved from Abydos to Memphis with a unified Egypt ruled by an Egyptian god-king.
Abydos remained the major holy land in the south. The hallmarks of ancient Egyptian civilization, such as art and many aspects of religion, took shape during the Early Dynastic period. Memphis in the Early Bronze Age was the largest city of the time; the Old Kingdom of the regional Bronze Age is the name given to the period in the 3rd millennium BC when Egypt attained its first continuous peak of civilization in complexity and achievement – the first of three "Kingdom" periods, which mark the high points of civilization in the lower Nile Valley. The First Intermediate Period of Egypt described as a "dark period" in ancient Egyptian history, spanned about 100 years after the end of the Old Kingdom from about 2181 to 2055 BC. Little monumental evidence survives from this period from the early part of it; the First Intermediate Period was a dynamic time when the rule of Egypt was divided between two competing power bases: Heracleopolis in Lower Egypt and Thebes in Upper Egypt. These two kingdoms would come into conflict, with the Theban kings conquering the north, resulting in the reunification of Egypt under a single ruler during the second part of the 11th Dynasty.
The Middle Kingdom of Egypt laste
Shashka
The shashka or shasqua is a special kind of sabre. In appearance, the shashka is midway between a straight sword, it has a curved blade, can be effective for both slashing and thrusting. The blade is either fullered. There is a large, curved pommel; the hilt is highly decorated. Shashkas from the Caucasus, as opposed to Russian versions, are carried in wooden scabbards that encloses part of the hilt, it is worn with the cutting edge up, opposite to the sabre. The shashka originated among the mountain tribes of the Caucasus in the 12th century. Most of the Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks adopted the weapon. Two styles of shashka exist: the Caucasian/Circassian shashka and the Cossack shashka; the Circassian form of sabre was longer than the Cossack type, in fact the Russian word shashka came from the Adyghe word - Adyghe: Шашькуэ - meaning "long knife". It replaced the sabre in all cavalry units except hussars during the 19th century. Russian troops, having encountered it during their conquest of the Caucasus, preferred it to their issued sabres.
The Russian Caucasian Corps first adopted it in the 1830s. In 1881, the shashka became an official weapon of Russian police. At this time there were three types of shashka: The Caucasus type, where the handle sits inside the scabbard, this type was used by Kuban Cossack and tribes from the Caucasus; the only problem was with this type of shashka was that in the rain, water could go down into the scabbard. This type of shashka was light flexible and sharp; the best and most famous shashkas of this types were Volchek. The Don Cossack shashka, which has a straighter blade, which gave Cossacks something in the middle to combine two things in one; the weight of this shashka is around 1 kilogram. The Terek Cossack shashka, the handle, like the Don Cossack shashka, does not go inside the scabbard, it is light and strong. The absence of the guard is inherited from the original Caucasian construction, in which the shashka is nearly hidden in the scabbard, together with the hilt; the hilt is curved down, thus providing an additional leverage for pulling the shashka and for additional force by wrist action.
The handle of the sabre was crafted so as to have a built-in pommel and a small guard, which extended to only one side of the hilt. Like most medieval and imperial Russian weaponry of the time the shashka and its scabbard were ornately decorated, with gold and silver engravings, embedded gems and stones placed into, figures carved out of or into, the hilts; the blade of the sabre was double or triple-fullered, due to its greater width than that of the European sabre, its unique styles of tempering, it was much stronger too, able to deal damage to light body armour. The shashka was notable for its sharpness. There has been film footage of Tsar Nicholas II using a Circassian sabre in an overhead twirling motion to horizontally cut pieces from a wooden pole. Parikaoba - traditional Caucasian fencing with shashka and buckler
Bursa
Bursa is a large city in Turkey, located in northwestern Anatolia, within the Marmara Region. It is the fourth most populous city in Turkey and one of the most industrialized metropolitan centres in the country; the city is the administrative centre of Bursa Province. Bursa was the first major and second overall capital of the Ottoman State between 1335 and 1363; the city was referred to as Hüdavendigar during the Ottoman period, while a more recent nickname is Yeşil Bursa'Green Bursa' in reference to the parks and gardens located across its urban fabric, as well as to the vast and richly varied forests of the surrounding region. Mount Uludağ, the ancient Mysian Olympus, towers over it, has a well-known ski resort. Bursa borders a fertile plain; the mausoleums of the early Ottoman sultans are located in Bursa and the city's main landmarks include numerous edifices built throughout the Ottoman period. Bursa has thermal baths and several museums, including a museum of archaeology; the shadow play characters Karagöz and Hacivat are based on historic personalities who lived and died in Bursa.
The city is known for Turkish dishes such as İskender kebap, its candied marron glacé chestnuts, Bursa peaches, production of Turkish Delight. Bursa houses the Uludağ University, its population can claim one of the highest overall levels of education in Turkey; the historic towns of İznik and Zeytinbağı are in its province. In 2015, Bursa had a population of 1,854,285. Bursa Province had 2,842,000 inhabitants; the earliest known human settlement near Bursa's current location was at Ilıpınar Höyüğü around 5200 BC. It was followed by the ancient Greek city of Cius, which Philip V of Macedon granted to Prusias I, the King of Bithynia, in 202 BC. Prusias renamed it Prusa. After 128 years of Bithynian rule, Nicomedes IV, the last King of Bithynia, bequeathed the entire kingdom to the Roman Empire in 74 BC. An early Roman Treasure was found in the vicinity of Bursa in the early 20th century. Composed of a woman's silver toilet articles, it is now in the British Museum. Bursa became the first major capital city of the early Ottoman Empire following its capture from the Byzantines in 1326.
As a result, the city witnessed a considerable amount of urban growth throughout the 14th century. After conquering Edirne in East Thrace, the Ottomans turned it into the new capital city in 1363, but Bursa retained its spiritual and commercial importance in the Ottoman Empire; the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I built the Bayezid Külliyesi in Bursa between 1390 and 1395 and the Ulu Cami between 1396 and 1400. Bursa remained to be the most important administrative and commercial centre in the empire until Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in 1453; the population of Bursa was 45,000 in 1487. During the Ottoman period, Bursa continued to be the source of most royal silk products. Aside from the local silk production, the city imported raw silk from Iran, from China, was the main production centre for the kaftans, pillows and other silk products for the Ottoman palaces until the 17th century. Following the foundation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, Bursa became one of the industrial centres of the country.
The economic development of the city was followed by population growth and Bursa became the 4th most populous city in Turkey. The city has traditionally been a pole of attraction, was a major centre for refugees from various ethnic backgrounds who immigrated to Anatolia from the Balkans during the loss of the Ottoman territories in Europe between the late 19th and early 20th centuries; the most recent arrival of Balkan Turks took place in the 1940s until the 1990s, when the People's Republic of Bulgaria expelled 150,000 Bulgarian Turks to Turkey. About one-third of these 150,000 Bulgarian Turkish refugees settled in Bursa. Bursa is settled on the northwestern slopes of Mount Uludağ in the southern Marmara Region, it is the capital city of Bursa Province bordered by the Sea of Yalova to the north. Bursa has a Mediterranean climate under the Köppen classification, dry-hot summer temperate climate Trewartha classification; the city has dry summers that last from June until September. Winters are cold and damp containing the most rainfall.
There can be snow on the ground which will last for two. Bursa is the centre of the Turkish automotive industry. Factories of motor vehicle producers like Fiat and Karsan, as well as automotive parts producers like Bosch, Valeo, Johnson Controls, Delphi have been active in the city for decades; the textile and food industries are strong, with Coca-Cola, Pepsi Cola and other beverage brands, as well as fresh and canned food industries being present in the city's organized industrial zones. The top 10 industry corporations in the Bursa province are as follows: Oyak Renault Tofaş Fiat Bosch Borçelik Sütaş Dairy Products Bursa Eczacılar Kooperatifi Türk Prysmian Kablo Özdilek Asil Çelik Componenta DöktaşApart from its large automotive industry, Bursa produces a substantial amount of dairy products, processed food, beverages. Traditionally, Bursa was famous for being the largest centre of silk trade in the Byzantine and the Ottoman empires, during the period of the lucrative Silk Road; the city is still a major centre for textiles in Turkey and is home to the Bursa International Textiles and Trade Centre (Bursa Uluslararas
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