Abu Futila

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Translating these pictures and adding the ethnographic atmosphere...Actually the tribal treatment on an Abu Futilla was to wrap wolf-skin around the Butt thereby adding talismanic effect to the weapon. Gunpowder was produced locally with a mixture of roasted wood from the Sodoms Apple bush and saltpeter. This highly toxic bush grows wild in Oman. Saltpeter was mined extensively along the Abu Dhabi coastline ..in the hills.

Incredibly little changed in the technology which typically once it was shown to work kept the Abu Futilla operational for centuries when other weapons were on the world stage and only really changed with the advent of the Martini Henry. They were still used up to the late 20th C for hunting.