Circassian Weaponry

The History Museum in Moscow has a large collection of weaponry of the mountaineer peoples of the North-Western Caucasus and Daghestan. The making of weapons, associated first of all with their military organisation, was a time-honoured occupation among the hillmen. Every male between the age of 20 to 60 was regarded as a warrior expected to answer a summons fully armed.

As a rule every warrior was expected to acquire armour and weaponry; the poor were assisted by the community. In addition the feudal rulers maintained a standing host of professional men at arms. The weaponry of the Caucasian hillmen traditionally consisted of defensive armour — shirt of mail, a helmet and armlets, and offensive weapons — a bow and arrows, a spear, dart, sabre and dagger. When the fire-arms became widespread in the 18th century, the bow and arrows, the gun and the defensive armour coexisted for some time. As time went on, fire-arms replaced the bow and arrows while the defensive armour, which afforded no protection against bullets, was discarded. Beginning from the second half of the 18th century the armament of a hillman consisted of a gun, pistol, sabre or cavalry sword and a dagger. ©www.heku.ru