Before Napoleon: the Early History of the Sabre in Europe

Oh boy.
I need more info and turko-mongol sabers and how to use my blunt "mongol" sword...

Where can i read more about this functional typology?

Watched this before your book arrives with the mail. Crazy my entire sport saber days were actually sub-smallsword weighted palash days.

Excellent lecture.
Our club is "thinking" about extending range from longsword only.
And saber was concidered, specifically Mayer’s dussack but you giving more material for thought.
Thanks a lot.

Great work Russ, your efforts are much appreciated. It's refreshing to see someone take this subject seriously. I was impressed that you were aware the Hungarian word 'szablya' means 'cutter', and that there was a district of Hungarians in Kievan Rus. Their presence in Chernigov maybe linked to earlier Severian settlements, as Hungarians were apparently known by a similar name 'Szavard'.

If I remember correctly, early sabres that appear in the Carpathian basin during the middle Avar period (alongside Sarmatian/Hun straight bladed swords with both one and two edged varieties), their design was not completely uniform. They display various degrees of blade curvature etc, and their use seems to decline in the late Avar period. Perhaps their appearance and later decline could be connected to the incoming Kutrigurs and Utrigurs and the subsequent Avar civil war.
Meanwhile, early sabre-like swords start to appear in Sassanid Persia. Although only in the late Sassanid period, and only in the south Caspian region of Daylam. The Sassanids apparently settled some of the Sabirs here, alongside the Daylamites, as both provided auxiliary forces to the Sassanids. What's interesting about the Sabirs is that they were the dominant group in the north Caucasus before the Avars defeated them, with some of them possibly being incorporated into the Avar Kaganate further West. Despite this, their continued presence in the Caucasus, together with the Alans and Bulgars (both early adopters of the sabre), laid the basis for the successors of the Western Göktürk Kaganate, the future Khazar Kaganate.

I remember reading that it was problematic that early sabre finds from the Saltovo-Mayaki complex were consistently labelled as 'Khazar-type', as these sabre finds are almost completely absent from core Khazar territories, which was noted by archaeologists Zaharov & Arendt in the 1930s. A diagram showed that these sabres are found along a trail of sites that range from the Pontic steppe heading north-east to the Ural mountains. The two sites that appear within the Khazar Khaganate, are situated in Novorossiysk (on the Black Sea) and Koban Village (in North-Ossetia), which seems to coincide with historical Circassian and Alan settlement areas.

Terminology for sabres and other bladed weapons could be drawn like this: Backwards curved blade (mostly single-edged) + curved (or asymmetric hilt) = sabre (Avar, Mongol, 1796, shamshir, kilidj etc..... Straight blade (mostly single-edged) + curved (or asymmetric hilt) = palos/palash, paramerion, Sassanid sword. Straight blade + straight symmetric hilt = sword, falchion. And then those highly effective oddities with forward curved blades, kukri or falcata-type I do not know much about.

A very enlightening book about the meeting of Western and Eastern/Southern weapons is D. A. Kinsley - Swordsmen of the British Empire, which answers many questions here.

Crying: "You can't just call everything a saber!!!"

Me: points at spatha "Saber."

I'm kidding of course!

Hi!!
What a wonderful lecture. I’m sad that I’m a year late and many dollars short in answering, but hey, better late than never!!! I grew up with my father, a former Royal Hungarian tank corps officer, who was taught to duel by the last of the Hungarian Hussars, teaching me their cavalry cuts and beat the daylights out of me before I went and learned to fence. I have studied (and written a bit) about the sabre, and would suggest this difference from your characterisation, if I may:
I would go with all those European swords directly or indirectly descended from the Avar-Bulgar-Magyar sabre (and archaeology has since found a clear Avar continuity to the Magyars) but would not go as far as saying Japanese, Indonesian, Chinese and etc., curved blades are all sabres for the simple reason that there is no continuity in provenance.
P.S. The Hussar „hegyestőr” „koncierz” etc., was primarily for breaking Ottoman mail armour, which they wore layered.
P.P.S. 19th C Hussar manuals warn about Tatar and Polish spears, advise parrying across the body.

Hello again! I wonder if you could help me understand something you said around minute 3: You quote and say that a sabre is defined as this, that and finally, it has no pommel. Huh? A pommel, surely, is what holds the grip to the tang, without which it will fly off. I know some Japanese models have a hole in the tang with kind of dowel connecting it to the grip. But I don't know of any such sabres. Could you explain?

I think design is irrelevant. The culture that makes it decides what it is.

Sidesword vs saber: now all you have to do is define a sidesword. That seems easy...

I think in the time of christianisation it was politically correct to take up the double-edged West-European sword and abandon the sabre which reminded too much of the pagan glorious past. That's why in the Képes Krónika we only see Coumans carrying sabres, or pagan Hungarians, whereas christian Hungarians are invariably depicted with straight double-edged swords. So the late medieval Hungarian sabre is a descendant of the Couman's sabre it would seem, as the Coumans were actually the sabre-carrying light cavalry of the Hungarian army from the 13th century onwards.

I thought the Petchenegs were bribed by the Bulgars to deliver a lesson to the Magyars who decided to take refuge in the Carpathian basin, not by the Byzantines (who were actually paying the Magyars to check the Bulgars which they did, but understandably, the Bulgars got angry so contacted the Petchenegs). The Magyars should have bribed the Coumans to attack the Petchenegs, but somebody had to stop the chain reaction...

Dear Russel! there is a good chance that we met at Csaba's training back then. All my compliments for what you have achieved. A respectable achievement. But I think you are over-mystifying the sabre, but especially the fokus fencing. If the shepherd's child was not skilled enough with the fokus, then the gypsy, the wolf or the bear took the animal, which meant that he starved to death, if the owner of the animal did not cut off his hand, or that he was hanged because he was labeled a thief. There is no need to mystify this, he had no real school. You either lived or died, the same is true for the border hussars. You either defeated the otherwise highly trained Spahi or Janissary opponent or you died. And since the crown was 2-3 years late with the salary, you either took what he had from the previously mentioned fokus-equipped child or you died.