Kilij

Most of Turkologists and linguists including Bican Ercilasun and Sevan Nişanyan think that it is derived from the Turkic root kıl- which means "to forge" or "to smith", with the diminutive suffix -ıç which creates kıl-ıç (roughly "ironwork", i.e. "sword").

[4] The earliest examples of curved, single edged Turkish swords can be found associated with the late Xiongnu and Kök-Turk empires.

[5] These swords were made of pattern welded high carbon crucible steel, generally with long slightly curved blades with one sharp edge.

Turkic Ghilman slave-soldiers serving under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates introduced kilij-type sabers to all of the other Middle Eastern cultures.

When the Seljuk Empire invaded Persia and became the first Turkic Muslim political power in Western Asia, kilij became the dominant sword form.

One of the oldest known examples is attributed to Özbeg Khan, khaghan of the Golden Horde, from the early 14th century, and is currently on display in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.

In the late 18th century, though shamshirs continued to be used, the kilij underwent an evolution: the blade was shortened, became much more acutely curved, and was wider with an even deeper yalman.

After the Auspicious Incident, the Turkish army was modernized in the European fashion and kilijs were abandoned for western-type cavalry sabers and smallswords.

In the late 19th century, Sultan Abdul Hamid II's palace guards, the Ertuğrul Brigade, which was composed of nomadic Turks of Anatolia, carried traditional kilijs as a romantic-nationalistic revival of the earlier Ottoman Turkoman cavalry raiders.

The American victory over the rebellious forces in the citadel of Tripoli in 1805 during the First Barbary War, led to the presentation of bejewelled examples of these swords to the senior officers of the US Marines.