I may inject this reference also onto my Martini Henry thread since it is very relevant to the more modern arms which were about to flood into the Arabian Peninsula in the late 19thC through regional ports like Muscat. It is however a corner stone marker of what happened and why to the old Matchlocks favoured for a hundred or more years were at last being superceded.
What the author suggests is extremely interesting in that his thoughts focus upon the slave trade having been a smokescreen to some extent for the vast numbers of guns being moved around for onward transmission to Afghanistan and for bringing pressure on Gulf countries....either way and although it is a hefty document it is well worth viewing for students involved in ethnographic weapons here...
Please therefor see
http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cg...en_access_etds
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.