Greek Kariophili/Rasak Musket

[kwiatek]

Thanks for the photo, that’s much clearer, though I am not sure of the reading of “Topçu” now! The name is hard to make out. The fact that it is in Ottoman Turkish does not mean that the owner was necessarily Turkish though as Turkish would have been understood by most people of rank in Anatolia, the Balkans and parts of the Arab-speaking Ottoman domains. Interesting piece, thanks again for sharing

[kahnjar1]

Hi Rick,
What ever your gun is....Kariophili or Rasak....it's a real gem and I am sure that there are many on this Forum who wished that they owned it. By the way the weight of my Kariophili is just 6lb so much the same as yours.
Regards Stu

[rickystl]

Again, thank you ALL for your replies. And a special thank you to Kwiatek for the translations. Much appreciated.

Rick

[cyten]

Wonderful acquisition, Ricky! Having never examined one in person (outside a museum) are these normally rifled?

And to the Kariophili vs Rasak debate, just what is the difference? Not having any reference material myself (waiting for a good deal on Elgood) I have always just thought the ones with a miquelet lock without a triggerguard were Rasak and the flintlock with triggerguard were Kariophili. One being "truly Hellenic" the other being Slavic/Balkan/Turkish influenced. But that was always an assumption.

[rickystl]

"I have always just thought the ones with a miquelet lock without a triggerguard were Rasak and the flintlock with triggerguard were Kariophili. One being "truly Hellenic" the other being Slavic/Balkan/Turkish influenced. But that was always an assumption."

Hi Cyten

That seems to be the general opinion of many. And I can't really argue with that since I am also in general agreement based on reference material and handling other original examples.
The gun styling is very similar to other Rasak guns with the more curved stock and use of a miquelet lock and no trigger guard as mentioned. Maybe influence from Southern Albania (?) where the miquelet lock shows up on 90% of Albanian guns.
What attracted me to this gun was the great condition and completeness. But what had me confused was the barrel. While I could not read the script the decoration on the barrel looked Ottoman to me. Thanks to this Forum we now know the writing is Ottoman/Turkish. What I am not sure of is whether the "built by" signature refers to the entire gun, or just the barrel. But it makes more sense that it refers to the complete gun.
We do know that Ottoman/Turkish gun barrels were held in high regard during this period. Even some higher end European sporting guns show up with Ottoman barrels.

I've never read or seen one of these guns with a rifled barrel. Apparently not a preference for the owners.

Rick

[executioners]

a question:

does anyone know the specific year of construction of the Rasak musket?

thank you

[guests]

Greetings.

The "kariofili" "καριοφίλι" is a corruption of the name of the Italian firearms maker 'Carlo e figlio' (that means 'Carlo and son'), the barrels were mostly from Brescia, in 1797 Beretta was awarded a "good service certificate" from Napoleon Bonaparte for supplying barrels for 40.000 muskets manufactured by Brescia for the French emperor's grande armee.

The Rasak was indeed a Balkanian construction as was the Dzeferdar.


Cheers.