17th CENTURY OTTOMAN ARROWHEAD

4 1/4” length with offset section armor flesh cutting point on butted seam conical socket. Designed to overcome lightly armored adversaries including Persian and the Balkan states, these were used against European forces as well.  They were particularly effective in sieges where civilians were randomly shot going about daily chores. Famously, when Kara Mustafa Pasha was routed at the Siege of Vienna in 1683, massive amounts of war material were abandoned and captured by the Austrians and Poles. The vast majority of surviving Ottoman militaria predating 1683 may be assumed to have been captured at Vienna. See Die Karlsruher Tüerkenbeute, Hirmer, 1991.