Long Arnaut Rasak gun

Armatolos · 29th December 2013, 10:19 PM

Hello everybody and Seasons Greetings,
A friend of mine sent me these photos of a long brass covered miquelet Rasak gun, now what's unusual with it, is that it has a firing mechanism taken from a Ottoman gun known as a Shishane, on both sides of it's beautiful decorated barrel there seem to be inscribed some numbers in arabic on one side of it and some letters on the other side.
Can anyone decypher what they mean?

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 30th December 2013, 04:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armatolos

Hello everybody and Seasons Greetings,
A friend of mine sent me these photos of a long brass covered miquelet Rasak gun, now what's unusual with it, is that it has a firing mechanism taken from a Ottoman gun known as a Shishane, on both sides of it's beautiful decorated barrel there seem to be inscribed some numbers in arabic on one side of it and some letters on the other side.
Can anyone decypher what they mean?

Salaams Armatolos,
I thought to place some artwork to support your thread;
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Armatolos · 30th December 2013, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams Armatolos,
I thought to place some artwork to support your thread;
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Thank you for the input, any idea on the arabic inscriptions on the Rasak?

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 30th December 2013, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armatolos

Thank you for the input, any idea on the arabic inscriptions on the Rasak?

Salaams Not really "God" is listening ...or something like that...... I'm much more interested in knowing where and who Arnaut Rasak was... provenance of weapon etc. There appears to be a date in Arabic on the other side of the weapon? Can we see that?
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 30th December 2013, 07:03 PM

Salaams all... Meanwhile more atmosphere courtesy http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/002363.html

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Armatolos · 30th December 2013, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams Not really "God" is listening ...or something like that...... I'm much more interested in knowing where and who Arnaut Rasak was... provenance of weapon etc. There appears to be a date in Arabic on the other side of the weapon? Can we see that?
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

"Arnaut Rasak" is not a person, Rasak is a type of a long flintlock gun of Balkan origin similar to the Greek Kariophili and the Allbanian Tancica and the same applies for the term Arnaut:

Arnauts ( ﺍﺭﻧﺎﻭﺩ); old term used mainly from
Turks and by extension by European authors
during the Ottoman Empire. A derivate of the
Turkish Arvanid (Arnavut) ( ﺍﺭﻭﺍﻧﻴﺪ ), which
derives from the Greek Arvanites .

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 30th December 2013, 08:05 PM

Salaams Apologies for mixing up Balkan and Moroccan ... I shall put that right !
There is the date !
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 30th December 2013, 08:11 PM

Armatolos · 30th December 2013, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams Apologies for mixing up Balkan and Moroccan ... I shall put that right !
There is the date !
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi

That's a Tancica between his legs!
any hints about the date?

TVV · 30th December 2013, 08:29 PM

Very nice rifle, Armatolos. I believe we can clearly see a date. Assuming that the last digit 0 is not written, then a dating of 1220 will correspond to a date of 1807-1808. I actually think the lock is consistent with the rifle. Shishane and boyliya locks tend to be a bit different, while the lock on this rasak is similar to locks on Albanian pistols and long guns. I know that a lot of the preserved museum examples have French style locks, but the original locks must have been Balkan miquelet ones, with the French locks supplanting those when imports increased during the 19th century.

Regards,
Teodor

Ibrahiim al Balooshi · 31st December 2013, 05:39 PM

Salaams All Note to Library...More of the Balkan stuff...and some Ottoman Guns.
In addition see https://archive.org/stream/balkansal...e/n28/mode/2up which is a free book by William Milligan Sloan from the 1914 edition. All readable and downloadable for nothing.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Armatolos · 2nd January 2014, 12:34 PM

I am putting up some more details.

Armatolos · 21st January 2014, 11:29 PM

The mystery is over!
It reads Mā shāʼ Allāh ( ﻣﺎ ﺷﺎﺀ ﺍﻟﻠﻪ )
but it inscribed by an illiterate artist and thus it is written backwards!!
The same applies for the inscribed date on the other side!

29th December 2013, 10:19 PM	#1
Armatolos Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Athens Posts: 14	Long Arnaut Rasak gun Hello everybody and Seasons Greetings, A friend of mine sent me these photos of a long brass covered miquelet Rasak gun, now what's unusual with it, is that it has a firing mechanism taken from a Ottoman gun known as a Shishane, on both sides of it's beautiful decorated barrel there seem to be inscribed some numbers in arabic on one side of it and some letters on the other side. Can anyone decypher what they mean? Attached Images

30th December 2013, 07:03 PM	#5
Ibrahiim al Balooshi Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE Posts: 4,408	Salaams all... Meanwhile more atmosphere courtesy http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/002363.html Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. Attached Images

30th December 2013, 08:05 PM	#7
Ibrahiim al Balooshi Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE Posts: 4,408	Salaams Apologies for mixing up Balkan and Moroccan ... I shall put that right ! There is the date ! Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi Attached Images Last edited by Ibrahiim al Balooshi; 30th December 2013 at 08:16 PM.

31st December 2013, 05:39 PM	#11
Ibrahiim al Balooshi Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE Posts: 4,408	Salaams All Note to Library...More of the Balkan stuff...and some Ottoman Guns. In addition see https://archive.org/stream/balkansal...e/n28/mode/2up which is a free book by William Milligan Sloan from the 1914 edition. All readable and downloadable for nothing. Regards, Ibrahiim al Balooshi. Attached Images Last edited by Ibrahiim al Balooshi; 31st December 2013 at 05:58 PM.

2nd January 2014, 12:34 PM	#12
Armatolos Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Athens Posts: 14	new photos added I am putting up some more details. Attached Images

30th December 2013, 08:11 PM	#8
Ibrahiim al Balooshi Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Buraimi Oman, on the border with the UAE Posts: 4,408

30th December 2013, 08:29 PM	#10
TVV Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Bay Area Posts: 1,621	Very nice rifle, Armatolos. I believe we can clearly see a date. Assuming that the last digit 0 is not written, then a dating of 1220 will correspond to a date of 1807-1808. I actually think the lock is consistent with the rifle. Shishane and boyliya locks tend to be a bit different, while the lock on this rasak is similar to locks on Albanian pistols and long guns. I know that a lot of the preserved museum examples have French style locks, but the original locks must have been Balkan miquelet ones, with the French locks supplanting those when imports increased during the 19th century. Regards, Teodor

21st January 2014, 11:29 PM	#13
Armatolos Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Athens Posts: 14	The mystery is over! It reads Mā shāʼ Allāh ( ﻣﺎ ﺷﺎﺀ ﺍﻟﻠﻪ ) but it inscribed by an illiterate artist and thus it is written backwards!! The same applies for the inscribed date on the other side!