Turkish flintlock pistol nicely decorated

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Cerjak

Estcrh
Most of the pistol said to be from the Balkan ( Greece Albania) I have seen was with a partial or full stock encased in metal plates and also some time a part of barrel . One perfect example is the traditional Albanian pistol , known as 'rat tail'. At last It seems for me that the miquelet lock is more common for pistols from ( Greece Albania) .
I hope that you could understand me as my English is not so good.

Best
CERJAK

Cerjak, your English is quite understandable. I also have seen many pistols described as "Balkan" with a full or partially metal encased stock. My question is about the type that you originally posted, what in particular makes one of the that does not have a metal encased stock a "Balkan" pistol.

Here is the typical description of what areas encompass the "Balkans".

The Balkan Peninsula, popularly referred to as the Balkans, is a geographical region of Southeast Europe. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the east of Serbia to the Black Sea at the east of Bulgaria.

The region is inhabited by Albanians, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Croats, Gorani, Greeks, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenes, Romanians, Aromanians, Turks, and other ethnic groups which present minorities in certain countries like the Romani and Ashkali. The largest religion on the Balkans is Orthodox Christianity, followed by Catholic Christianity and Islam.

Here are several similar pistols which have been posted here, they do not have any particular distinguishing characteristics that I can see which would classify them as being "Balkan", does anyone here know why these would be called 'Balkan" and not simply "Ottoman".