A TORADOR MUSKET FOR A BOY

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

Without any knowledge about shooting weapons I had to read about them, and here is what I found.
Robert Elgood: Firearms of the Islamic World in the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait, 1995.
On page 130 Elgood quotes Oppert, who again quotes Sukraniti - Elgood writes that it is doubtful how genuine Sukraniti realy is.
" two kinds of firearms are dscribed in the Sukraniti, one is of small size and the other is of large size. The former is five spans long [a span is about 22 cm]..."
There are, of course, a lot of other interesting things to read, like on Sind where note 79 is of special interest, as it tells about a visit by Arnold von Haff in 1497, where he gives a description of the armoury, where he gives its size to thirty feed wide and quite a hundred feet long which is full of arms, like 3-4000 swords, daggers, chain mails, helmets, shields, long pikes and many cross bows hanging under the roof in six rows.
The description is too long for me to quote, but I think you get the general idea, that the armoury was quite big, and contained a lot of weapons.

It is also mentioned that these short guns were likely made for a boy or a woman.

Jens,
Thank you for noting this and for so well citing and referencing the source and pages. I also have little knowledge on these firearms, and its great to have these sources so I can pursue more in that context. I always appreciate when contributors add these details. The note as to these indeed produced for boys as suspected is great support.

All best regards
Jim