Abu Futila

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by rickystl

YES!! Thank you Ibrahiim for starting this Thread. Most interesting reading. One take away is that there still seems to be no firm confirmation as to the origins of the barrels on the abu futilla. It's simply amazing how long these guns continued in use by the locals.

Curious that there seems to be a number of barrel specimens that had burst. I wonder the reason(s) for this ? But I'm sure a whole new Thread could be started discussing the possibilities. LOL

Rick

It appears that the main reason for barrels bursting was the use of modern powder...In one case some children brought me a blown barrel that they had filled with Martini Henry ammo gunpowder and had thrown it into a fire as they ran off to hide behind a tree...It shattered the entire barrel and all that was left was a shredded cannon end at the the breach...

On barrel origins some are Persian and others Indian whilst there may be some of German make. There are slightly different ideas depending which author is making the point or where the point is being made from.... Some evidence indicates Ottoman when describing input to Arabia from Red Sea regions...and Elgood who makes more reliable assessments viewing the weapons via the Tareq Rajeb Museum collection ...most barrels I see are "blistered together lengths" type...stamped over the barrel in arabic... It is a very interesting question ...thank you.

I ran into some Jebali hunters in 1985 in Wadi Hina near Mirbat, North of Salalah and they had one ... They look early... 16th or 17th C.