Indo Persian Musket ?

drac2k · 6th July 2022, 06:45 PM

I just picked up this percussion musket and I was wondering if anyone could give a hint as to its origins based on the lock plate.

corrado26 · 6th July 2022, 07:19 PM

I think the lockplate is from a flintlock of the EIC India Pattern musket badly transferred into percussion probably by an Afghan or Pakistan handyman.

drac2k · 6th July 2022, 09:01 PM

Thanks, Corrado26. Can you believe that it actually cocks and strikes? It is quite long(60"), & heavy and I would guess there once was a bipod where the sling is now.

Jim McDougall · 7th July 2022, 07:35 PM

Another amazing example of the Afghan 'jezail' using sometimes (but most often copies) of the East India Company balemark, the lion coming in after the quartered heart (c. 1810).

In the Khyber Pass regions in 1890s, the Pashtun tribes advanced their gun making skills in copying British weapons, primarily in the locations in Darra Adam Khel, with the British basically turning a blind eye in return for safe passage through the rugged pass.

The dreaded jezail was well noted by Kipling in his famed poetry on these regions, especially in his "Arithmetic on the Frontier" :
"....A scrimmage in a border station, a canter down some dark defile;
Two thousand pounds of education, drops to a ten rupee jezail".

These guns were deadly and Pashtun marksmen were skilled, later the frontier police levy which became the famed "Khyber Rifles" were originally known as the 'Khyber Jezailchi's'.

Gun making in Darra Adam Khel has been well known into modern times, but with the guns of course more the current types, but these 19th century muskets and the Afghan forms still into '30s.
This is the example I found, the same style lion and date 1815.

As noted, the 'Khyber Jezalchis' were formed in 1878, one of the first paramilitary units of the British Frontier Corps, and their rifles were indeed their own jezails. Soon after they were furnished the British Snider-Enfield; then the Martini-Henry.
When Talbot Mundy wrote "King of the Khyber Rifles" in 1919 (based on "Eighteen Years in the Khyber" by Sir Robert Warburton), the copy of the edition I have has a jezail on the face under the title.

David R · 7th July 2022, 08:16 PM

On a previous thread there was a comment as to what 10 rupees was worth in real terms, and being the sort of person I am I found out. In 1898 it comes out as £157 in modern UK money, and about $200, working from the gold standard as it was on at the time.

drac2k · 7th July 2022, 09:17 PM

Thanks, Jim for the informative and concise post in which I am always educated!
Thanks, David for your information as well; I would have wrongly inferred that 10 rupees were much less than what you found it to be.

6th July 2022, 06:45 PM	#1
drac2k Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 1,235	Indo Persian Musket ? I just picked up this percussion musket and I was wondering if anyone could give a hint as to its origins based on the lock plate. Attached Images

7th July 2022, 07:35 PM	#4
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,957	Another amazing example of the Afghan 'jezail' using sometimes (but most often copies) of the East India Company balemark, the lion coming in after the quartered heart (c. 1810). In the Khyber Pass regions in 1890s, the Pashtun tribes advanced their gun making skills in copying British weapons, primarily in the locations in Darra Adam Khel, with the British basically turning a blind eye in return for safe passage through the rugged pass. The dreaded jezail was well noted by Kipling in his famed poetry on these regions, especially in his "Arithmetic on the Frontier" : "....A scrimmage in a border station, a canter down some dark defile; Two thousand pounds of education, drops to a ten rupee jezail". These guns were deadly and Pashtun marksmen were skilled, later the frontier police levy which became the famed "Khyber Rifles" were originally known as the 'Khyber Jezailchi's'. Gun making in Darra Adam Khel has been well known into modern times, but with the guns of course more the current types, but these 19th century muskets and the Afghan forms still into '30s. This is the example I found, the same style lion and date 1815. As noted, the 'Khyber Jezalchis' were formed in 1878, one of the first paramilitary units of the British Frontier Corps, and their rifles were indeed their own jezails. Soon after they were furnished the British Snider-Enfield; then the Martini-Henry. When Talbot Mundy wrote "King of the Khyber Rifles" in 1919 (based on "Eighteen Years in the Khyber" by Sir Robert Warburton), the copy of the edition I have has a jezail on the face under the title. Attached Images Last edited by Jim McDougall; 8th July 2022 at 01:02 AM.

6th July 2022, 07:19 PM	#2
corrado26 Member Join Date: Dec 2014 Location: Black Forest, Germany Posts: 1,207	I think the lockplate is from a flintlock of the EIC India Pattern musket badly transferred into percussion probably by an Afghan or Pakistan handyman.

6th July 2022, 09:01 PM	#3
drac2k Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 1,235	Thanks, Corrado26. Can you believe that it actually cocks and strikes? It is quite long(60"), & heavy and I would guess there once was a bipod where the sling is now.

7th July 2022, 08:16 PM	#5
David R Member Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 1,079	On a previous thread there was a comment as to what 10 rupees was worth in real terms, and being the sort of person I am I found out. In 1898 it comes out as £157 in modern UK money, and about $200, working from the gold standard as it was on at the time.

7th July 2022, 09:17 PM	#6
drac2k Member Join Date: Jun 2013 Posts: 1,235	Thanks, Jim for the informative and concise post in which I am always educated! Thanks, David for your information as well; I would have wrongly inferred that 10 rupees were much less than what you found it to be.