Traditional M/L Guns from Afghanistan

[rickystl]

Hi Cyten

Again, thanks so much for the cool photos. Interesting that those matchlocks will bring a big premium at auction if they include their original bipods. By themselves, the bipods are very rare to locate.

Rick

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Dave just made a video about his newly made Jezail mousquette.

 

[rickystl]

Dave just made a video about his newly made Jezail mousquette.

Which Dave ?

 

[rickystl]

Speaking of Afghan guns.....

While searching for something else, here is another gun I had forgotten about. LOL

Genuine, Afghan made pistol examples are uncommon to find. Most are earlier 20th Century made items for the tourist market using a combination old and newer parts. I bought this pistol many years ago cheap. From the seller's poor photos, I was thinking this pistol was also one of those re-assembled pieces for the tourist market. The red flag was that the lock was held in place with two wood screws with no provision for lock bolts. But after receiving the pistol, it appears to be the genuine article, even considering the semi-crude assembly. The stock is old, with all the edges rounded. The barrel is genuine with engraving decoration done in the Afghan style. The trigger guard looks as if it already had a broken tail, but was re-used anyway. There is a break in the wrist with a poor repair job that looks later 20th Century. The bone inlays are old and were crudely applied. Even the small piece of leather that held the flint (forgot to take a photo) is very old and soft, with stains from black powder. But the one interesting feature is the lock itself. It's a miquelet lock from Bulgaria. Or at least Bulgaria is where collectors believe this style of miquelet originated from. All together, this pistol looks like it was made in some Afghan shop using bits and pieces from whatever surplus was available at the moment. Anyway, here's a bunch of photos.

Rick

 

[rickystl]

MORE PICS....

 

[rickystl]

LAST ONES.....

 

[cyten]

Rick, that is a very interesting pistol that poses a lot of questions. The Bulgarian lock… no clue how that could end up in Afghanistan. The stock decorations to me look more like what you see on Bosnian Bichaq knives

At first glance, I could agree it looks like something coming out of Afghanistan, but the lock and decor say Balkan to me. You have more experience in this department than I, only had one Jezail many years ago, and have not examined many barrels

 

[rickystl]

Hi Cyten

I also have a Bosnian knife with similar decoration on the grip. If I recall correctly, the circle/dot decoration was the "seeing eye" symbol for warding off evil spirits (?) You see this on all kinds of Moroccan guns and blades as well as many other Balkan origins. Afghan decoration seemed to prefer the use of mother of pearl decoration over bone. It's also possible the bone inlays were done later in the period by a different owner. (The Greeks were fond of doing this by adding a new decorative inlay after each successful battle). The traces of that black colored adhesive type material to hold the inlays in place looks like the same as the Afghans used for their inlays. But then, that glue may have been universal everywhere. The engraving on the barrel is very old and faint. But looks similar to what I've seen on some Afghan long guns. The barrel is European. The engraving likely done later in the period. I can tell there was originally a single barrel band at the muzzle. That Bulgarian lock showing up on a pistol, especially one like this, is very strange indeed. Since the lock is set with wood screws, I haven't removed the lock. But will probably do so anyway to satisfy my curiosity if the carving of the mortise appears as old as the rest of the stock. From the outside appearance, the lock and mortise appear to be correct. As well as the relationship between the pan and the barrel. So, in spite of the bone decoration, the lock, stock, and barrel all appear to have started life together. Where ? Who knows. LOL Like you, at first glance, it just looks like Afghan type assembly work. Interesting that I can't recall seeing any period photos showing Afghan tribesman with muzzle loading pistols in their belts/sash. Seems the Afghans didn't have much use for pistols generally (?) For sure, this pistol has more questions than answers. LOL

Rick

 

[cyten]

Also similar to this pillar in Tajikistan. I just arrived in Western Tajikistan yesterday and saw another matchlock jezail

Appeared to be around .35-.40 caliber

There was surprisingly a Khirimi on display as well and some Mosin shotgun conversions (called Frovlovka)

 

[rickystl]

Hi Cyten

Thanks for the recent photos. Yes, there's that "seeing eye" again on that wood pillar. You see this in so many places and objects.
Rather a small caliber for a Jazail. Looks to be a rifled barrel. The rifles from Sindh tend to be rifled in smaller calibers.

Rick

 

[rickystl]

That pistol I just posted is certainly not the most attractive in my collection. LOL Especially with the over-use of crude inlays. But it is one of the more curious examples with that Bulgarian lock.

Rick

 

[PathfinderNC]

Dear Rick I do seem to have had a good run in life Started in a well Bombed Low rent district of Sheffield 1944 a sickly child due to the industrial smog but was good at geography & history I was quite eager to find some warmer climate So by 20 year old I set off on a pushbike to South Africa ,Well Stanford's General map of Africa showed roads that are just' Pistes' tracks in the sand plus Mauritania Closed its border to Morrocco . So I itch up Casablanca trying the post for ships No go so hitch to Alger get a visa for Mali & hitch down to Adrar after being invited to a wedding ? festivity at small Oasis great people. After a week in Adrar two trucks form convoy & I ride the top of one to Gao in Mali 7 days across the Sahara first two in Sandstorms boil by day & freeze by night .from Gao Timbuctoo is only 140 miles or so But I hitched all day one car came by (there is no paved road just rutted' Pistes' . but got sick so return to Gao & ride a overloaded cattle truck two pain full days to Mopti also on the Niger river .By then sicker than any sea side Donkey . But survived .& twas then an ambling trail of cramped Mille Kilos Red dusty roads through Ivory Coast Liberia, Sierra Leone , The White mans grave !.Back threw getting hassled by Liberian security ordered to leave but picked up a job for a timber company anyway ..Cross Ivory Coast get into great 'palaver' one night nr Grand Bassam the useual I MUST be a spy (Not fitting the normal Ex pat Missionary or Firestone rep. normal people shouted " Johnny Walker " some nit stirred the village up. armed troops roll up search bag ect I had a flint lock & a horn of gunpower (Naturally I was a Muzzle loader after all )and Ide made one Bedouin very happy by giving him two flints for his Snaphance Kabyle earlier ) but no James Bond stuff it looked tense a sort of " Now what they do" But I made a joke gave them an' out ' & That broke up that diffoolgalty .But next day I cross the river in a dug out to Half assini fine row of smartly dressed Ghanaian Police on the jetty their wide short s so crisp their legs moved but the shorts didnt bit like some plastic toy cows Woolworths used to sell. Border hassle . I end in in house arrest at a school with some PCV & Cuso & VSO teachers so was OK .ere they take me to Accra who reasoned I Cant be a Carpenter I know to much of the world ! Yup . So ime to be deported to Nigeria at 7 pounds fare .They wont pay ,Not on your Nelly I sure as hell wont pay , So we settle on a Mammy wagon to Togo :Land for ten shillings .plus a box of cigs to bribe the border bods the High commission gave me .Then the Maliaria strook but I didnt know what it was so hitch to Nigeria via Dahomey .Where at the PCV Hostel their Doctor said it was 104 degrees Malaria no fun when you have to kip in Victoria beach to save the now dwindleing funds That was an education it was a small concrete hovel where the locals went to gamble one bloke was Coffing his mate explained it was yellow fever .Hmmm . Anyway a cop raids the gamblers they explode out the door Ime laying there on a piece of plastic all ide got by then too hot for my long since ditched sleeping bag I just waited till they looked inside but they didn't .Anyway I hitch up to Benin thence the Asaba Oneita ferry cross the now huge Niger river to Enugu Met a fellow Yorkshire man good company thence travel through the Cameroons via Victoria then Duala war in Congo ( nothing much changed !) so took a old Dakata to Fernando Poo .then Spanish ( Francos Spain ) hopeing for a Portugues ship to Angola via Soa Tome but wasn't to be so worked putting a tin roof over oil drum stores for a whole 100 peseta's a day! near the Equator . Talk about cat on a hot tin roof ! Oh well it gave me the price of quarters & tucker Till the Supply ship" Ciudad de Toledo " gave me passage to Cadiz via Lagos ,Monrovia , & the Canaries hitch across Spain to Irun thence hitch up to Boulogne I think from memory . My poo at the time small & covered in green stuff ( You don't wish to know this !)Had Just enough for the ferry to Dover kip in a golf links Cold after the months in the tropics & no blanket
But no mail so I hitch up home with a whole 7 / 6 pence left.. Thats a very condensed version of course . But big phew &' Finished with engines ' So you see after that the run to Ceylon following year was a comparative' doddle' & I never stopped wandering . Stewart Island (NZ)To Dawson City in the Yukon down through to Puerta Cortez in Honduras .All over Australia . worked later Zululand 1970 then down to Cape town & hitched up to Nairobi . The world was my oyster , its any ones who wants it to be. but times now, have about stuffed that caper ..Anyway big cheese ? maybe but it made 79 but cant see me going away much except up or down wards ? .Regards Rudyard

Rudyard the Adventurer

 

[cyten]

Was in Kokand, once the center of a powerful Khanate in the Fergana Valley, and saw some interesting/odd matchlocks on display in the palace. These were supposedly from the Khans guards and have the same barrels from the Bukhara guns but a different stock design entirely. Poor lighting made for poor photos

 

[rickystl]

Hi Cyten

Thanks for the photos. Indeed unusual matchlocks. Looks like the butt stocks are a shorter, but wider versions of the Torador.

Rick

 

[TobJohn]

Hi Cyten

Thanks for the photos. Indeed unusual matchlocks. Looks like the butt stocks are a shorter, but wider versions of the Torador.

Rick

They almost look like someone trying to draw a Torador from memory.

 

[Sam squanch]

If they were used by the khan’s guards maybe they were made to be used as a club as well. Fire one shot- then, the wrath of KHAN!!!!

 

[cyten]

They look similar to this illustration from "Arms and armor in the khanates of Central Asia (Bukhara, Kokand, Khiva) in the late 18th - early 20th centuries" by Dmitry Miloserdov

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Dave Stavlo posted a new Jezail he built for a customer.

 

[rickystl]

Dave Stavlo posted a new Jezail he built for a customer.

Where ?