Another request for translation...

[SchildaBrit]

Kwiatek, I was impressed by your reading of General Cunningham. I can struggle through printed Arabic lettering, but handwriting floors me.

It took me a loooong time to work out that you were (of course!) correct.

As a "reward" for your skill, perhaps you can work this one out?

It is (probably a name) engraved on the barrel of my jezail rifle. All I can guess is m ? gh ? ya. Maybe m-r-gh-l-ya.
Which isn't much help, even if it is correct.

Many thanks to anyone who can provide a solution!
Patrick

[kwiatek]

It might be 'Mir 'Ali', though it is written very strangely, as you point out

[SchildaBrit]

Thank you Kwiatek for a valuable suggestion - it had not occurred to me that it might be two words.

As to Mir Ali: There seem to be 2 possibilities.
1) A place name - there is actually a village named Mir Ali in Waziristan.
However, this rifle is a personal weapon, so the name would be naturally applied, not the name of a village.

2) A personal name. Mir Ali exists as a Farsi/Dari name. This seems to me far more likely. The name is not cleanly engraved, but has been applied with a chisel point or gouge, hence the blobby nature of the "mim". And for someone hacking his name into the barrel in the backwoods of Afghanistan (or Iran) one cannot expect printed letter quality.

More to come on the barrel in the original thread!

[Battara]

Please post a picture of the entire piece.