Frontier Arithmetic: The Afghan Jezail

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

There are contradictory reports on the supposed advantages and disadvantages of the afghan jezail compared to the brown bess.

It may be remembered that the Jezail was a copy and largely of the brown bess and by almost accident it turned into something of a home made snipers rifle.

There are several reasons why, including the Jezails elongated barrel and its rifled twist as well as its deployment in groups of two and three shooters in the high mountain passes using plunging fire carefully aimed at massed targets struggling to pass below and where counter attack, easy on flatter ground, was impossible among vertical cliffs etc.

Here is another reason for their better marksmanship below... the bipod.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

There are contradictory reports on the supposed advantages and disadvantages of the afghan jezail compared to the brown bess.

It may be remembered that the Jezail was a copy and largely of the brown bess and by almost accident it turned into something of a home made snipers rifle.

There are several reasons why, including the Jezails elongated barrel and its rifled twist as well as its deployment in groups of two and three shooters in the high mountain passes using plunging fire carefully aimed at massed targets struggling to pass below and where counter attack, easy on flatter ground, was impossible among vertical cliffs etc.

Here is another reason for their better marksmanship below... the bipod.

There really are conflicting views on these, and it is likely that being assembled by so many local makers there was probably a wide range of quality. I wonder if the jezail design was around in these Afghan regions much before the advent of the supplies of British gun locks in the mid 18th c.
I also wonder if other gun locks, or even if there were Afghan locks made without copying British ones.
I know there were matchlock jezails of course, so presumably these were copied from Indian toradors or other examples?

The effectiveness of these snipers high in cliffs and escarpments in these rugged regions were ideally situated for sniping, and as noted, the use of the bipod was key. I always think of the classic movie "Gunga Din" and these snipers unleashing their fire on the British columns.

[kahnjar1]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

There really are conflicting views on these, and it is likely that being assembled by so many local makers there was probably a wide range of quality. I wonder if the jezail design was around in these Afghan regions much before the advent of the supplies of British gun locks in the mid 18th c.
I also wonder if other gun locks, or even if there were Afghan locks made without copying British ones.
I know there were matchlock jezails of course, so presumably these were copied from Indian toradors or other examples?

The effectiveness of these snipers high in cliffs and escarpments in these rugged regions were ideally situated for sniping, and as noted, the use of the bipod was key. I always think of the classic movie "Gunga Din" and these snipers unleashing their fire on the British columns.

.....Don't forget that jezails are also found as matchlocks, so yes it is likely that they existed before the availability of British and no doubt other locks.
Stu

[Kubur]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

.....Don't forget that jezails are also found as matchlocks, so yes it is likely that they existed before the availability of British and no doubt other locks.
Stu

I agree for the Sindhi matchlocks.

But I never saw any Pashtun matchlocks...
It doesnt mean that they don't exist, but it's very strange that none of them appeared in Museums or on the market...

i found one here but most likely from the Sindh
plus more examples from another - lucky - forum member...

[rickystl]

Hello All.

The interest in these guns (and Oriental guns in general) for antique gun collectors is very much a minority within a minority if you will. LOL There is more interest in the blades and armor among Ethno collectors. I can remember back when dealers would only take these guns in on a consignment basis. The lack of collector interest is the likely reason these guns have historically never brought the prices of their European counterparts. There are always exceptions of course (such as Greek origin guns). However, I have noticed in just the last 3/4 years that the auction pricing for many of these guns has trended upward.

I've only inspected one Jazail of obvious Afghan origin that was matchlock. The others were all of Sindh origin. Although we know they existed. In fact, one of the interesting features of my Jazail shooter above is that the barrel started life as a matchlock and was later restocked as a flintlock. I kept photos of the evidence.

As mentioned, there are more remaining Jazail specimens in flintlock than percussion. This was likely due to the cost and availability of percussion caps. As a curious side note, virtually every gun of Sindh origin I've seen is either matchlock or percussion. There are a couple of flintlock variations in books/museums, but they would be considered quite rare. Almost as if the Sindh skipped the flintlock period and went from matchlock to percussion (similar to the Japanese).

Here is another Jazail from my collection. From a collectors view, this would be a favorite. The entire gun is in original, unmolested condition. The entire circumference of the butt stock is heavily decorated with pearl inlays. There is even an old museum tag this is mis-identified. LOL The barrel is smooth bore. The lock is a genuine EIC lock dated 1811. Since these first photos, I've cleaned the lock but still have to replace 3 missing pearl inlays. The barrel one this one is front heavy as most. Even most of the original black tar protection is present. This one was lucky find.

Rick

[rickystl]

AND PICS OF THE LOCK......

[Jim McDougall]

It seems I have read that matchlock ignition was used in Afghan regions on jezails for quite some time, so in retracing through Egerton (1880),on pp.140,141 I found:

On Waziris, Afridis and Mahsuds, "...their matchlocks were, until the introduction of the rifled weapons, much superior to our old 'Brown Bess' and carried up to 800 yards with accuracy".

On the Durrani's, cited by Egerton , "Moorcrofts Travels" (1824) notes that they carried matchlocks, with the 'limak' or crooked stock or flintlocks".

It would seem that the 'crooked stock' perhaps may refer to the uniquely shaped 'jezail' (though these references do not use that term) and mentions flintlock, perhaps early entries of the EIC locks.