The Laz Bichaq, as seen in historical photographs

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This post is about this style of sword, the "Laz bıçağ".

It's native name is "Laz bıçağ,", or "Laz Knife", and it is named after the Caucasus Lazi people of the coastal regions bordering the Black Sea.

It is perhaps more accurate to refer to it as a Laz yatagan, as it's clearly much larger than a typical knife.

I recently acquired this antique example of one, and as per usual the first thing I need to do when I acquire an antique is perform research. As a result, I have been gathering photos of them being worn in their original context.

Many of the photos here are from around 1850 to 1900, and from Trabzon, though Laz-speaking people covered cities all over what is currently modern north eastern Turkey.

Part 1: the sword.

The black sea yataghan is a short, recurved sword from the regions currently known as Northern Turkey and Georgia. This is a 19th century example, in the classical form.

As these were used by an ethnic group that bordered the black sea, they were used both on land and at sea.

There are reports that the Laz people were fairly successful pirates in the early 19th century, with one notable raid conducted in 1806, where Laz pirates conduct an invasion of the port town of Oinoy, otherwise spelt Oenoe (pronounced Enoy) and today known as Ünye, which results in the town being evacuated by its residents under the guidance of Bishop Meletios. They flee to Sinope and surrounding regions, and many eventually return.

The result of this incursion was that a Pasha from Trabzon (Kuguzade Suleyman Pasha, appointed 1791) took over the castle at Ünye and converted it into a palatial estate (source: "Eastern Turkey: An Architectural & Archaeological Survey, Volume II", T.A. Sinclair, 1989)

This style of sword, being relatively short and with good cutting authority, was well suited to use on small and medium sized boats, as well as use on land as an infantry sword.

A 1945 lecture by Denis Wright (https://doi.org/10.1080/03068374608731207) says of the Laz:

"The vast majority of the Lazes (54,000 out of 63,000, according to the
1935 Census) are settled in the coastal region between Rize and the
Russian frontier. They are recognized as good orthodox Moslems and
the finest seamen on the Black Sea. They are also crack shots, and go out
in their schooners hunting porpoises which they shoot as they leap from
the sea; they then bring them to Trebizond, where they are boiled down
for their oil. The Laz language, which belongs to the MingrelianGeorgian group, is unrelated to Turkish. They also have a national
dance of their own, the Horun, which is danced by the men jerking and
stamping in a circle round a fiddler or bagpiper; often one can see it
being performed by steerage passengers on the Black Sea steamers."

Many of these were made in Sürmene, Turkey, and there is still an active modern knifemaking industry in the region, though they make kitchen knives mostly.

The Laz Bichaq has a distinctive style of "cresent" shaped pommel, made of cow horn. These are very fragile, and often broken on extant examples.

This example also retains the leather grip with wire wrap, which is often missing on antiques.

The short, terminated fullers and dotwork decoration are typical of these swords, and are often paired with brass inlays, which have oxidised and turned a little green on this example.

Likewise, the spines are almost invariably decorated in dotwork.

1904 map, see Lazistan in the top right corner of the Black Sea.

'Asia Minor'. Cartographer: John Bartholomew & Co., Edinburgh. 1904. From Alamy photos.