kabyle
 

Hello with all.
Here my last purchase.
It is a kabyle gun.
Look at the stone.
Page 257.
That think about it.
galvano

Looks interesting. would you post some closeup pictures of the brass bands on the barrel?

Hi,

I had a similar one , but with a percussion lock. I believe it to be Tuareg.

Galvano:
Your moukahla is of a type called "afedali", characterized by the butt which flares into an extremely wide and flat buttplate. This shape is a descendant of the original Dutch and English schnapphans muskets imported to North Africa beginning in the 17th cent. Afedali were primarily made in the areas of Taroudant and the Sous river valley.

The lock on yours is atypical for most -- rather than a schnapphans it is a surplus British military lock from a "Brown Bess" type musket.

Valjhun:
The percussion-lock version of the moukahla that you have is of a type still being made up to about 25-30 years ago for use by tribesmen, either for hunting or for the ceremonial firing of blank shots from gallopping horses ("le fantasie"). When I travelled thru Morocco back then, I visited a gunsmith's shop in the souq of Marrakech, where an old man was still building these using the most primitive tools. The anvil was little more than a heavy cubic chunk of iron affixed to the earthen floor of the shop. The forge was dug into the floor, the blast-pipes connected to goatskin bellows worked by a young kid who served as a helper. By then, smiths had apparently stopped making barrels and locks from scratch. This smith had a supply antique 19th cent. percussion rifle and musket barrels, and locks to function with them. Many of them bore American maker's marks (Springfield, Remington, etc.). The shop mainly produced the wooden stocks and the various hardware (triggers and guards, capucines, ramrods) to make the gun functional.

By the time of my visit, schnapphans locks were only seen on "antique" guns offered as curios, and I put the term in quotes because practically all the pieces on the market were new wallhangers of abysmal quality, or bona fide antiques which had been extensively worked over. I looked at a lot of them, and didn't find one in operating condition.