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".

[Kubur]

Ok my friend escrtch
I think Balkans is more appropriate because it is a region.
Ottoman is a period.
Ottomans ruled from Istanbul to Algers and Yemen.
For example, Algerians pistols are very different.
So the region is probably more informative.
Or Ottoman Balkans if you prefer...
Kubur

[Kubur]

I posted mines.
The last one is Algerian.
Kubur

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Kubur

Ok my friend escrtch
I think Balkans is more appropriate because it is a region.
Ottoman is a period.
Ottomans ruled from Istanbul to Algers and Yemen.
For example, Algerians pistols are very different.
So the region is probably more informative.
Or Ottoman Balkans if you prefer...
Kubur

Kuber, what then is the difference between an Ottoman Turkish pistol and an Ottoman Balkan pistol?

[Kubur]

Woaw it is a hard question.
To be honest I should say nothing.
BUT for me, Turkish is a population from Central Asia.
After the collapse of Ottoman Empire, Ataturk started the process of Turkification and laid the bases of Modern Turkey.
To my own and personnal knowledge, these pistols were produced in the Balkans for the Ottomans. But they are not Turks.
The Ottomans also used Caucasian pistols...
May be I'm wrong... You decide.

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Kubur

Woaw it is a hard question.
To be honest I should say nothing.
BUT for me, Turkish is a population from Central Asia.
After the collapse of Ottoman Empire, Ataturk started the process of Turkification and laid the bases of Modern Turkey.
To my own and personnal knowledge, these pistols were produced in the Balkans for the Ottomans. But they are not Turks.
The Ottomans also used Caucasian pistols...
May be I'm wrong... You decide.

Kuber, thanks for your reply, and I appreciate your thoughts. In my opinion I have yet to see any distinct evidence that the basic pistol such as the one Cerjak has posted is anything other than an Ottoman pistol. "Ottoman" to me means more than a period of time, it was an empire composed of many different cultures, countries and regions.

When I see weapons and or armor that originated in the Ottoman empire and there is no distinct sign of it being made or used by any particular region, country etc I call the item "Ottoman", such as an Ottoman kilij, on the other hand when an item is known to have come from a distinct region/country that was part of the Ottoman empire I use that region/country in the discription (Ottoman Empire Albanian "Rat Tail" Flint Pistol) or (Ottoman Empire Balkan yatagan).

This is just my opinion based what I have read and observed.

[BANDOOK]

could someone roughly date my pistols which I posted,kubur could help,cheers

[Kubur]

Of course, they are almost like mine.
I would say 1800 - 1840 AD. (for both).
Then these guns were used up to the end of the 19th c.
Best,
Kubur