Pistoale balcanice cu cremene din colecţia Muzeului Banatului Timișoara / Flint Balkan Pistols from the Collection of Banat Museum in Timișoara

The craft of portable flint-lock firearms has been developed in the Balkan area under the influence of OttomanTurks. The military needs made the Ottomans to support the start up and development of the weaponryproduction related crafts in the Balkan Peninsula. The armorers, who came from the East together with theOttoman army, were part of the janissary troops, the latter being the ones who taught the local craftsmen the secretof manufacturing such weapons.Most of the Balkan flint-lock pistols used an exterior spring-based arming mechanism, also referred to asmiquelet, as Spanish mechanism, or a Turkish mechanism, depending on the context it was used on most orientalC rearms. During the same period, the western C rearms were based on an interior spring-based arming mechanism(the spring was incorporated within the mechanism), also referred to as the French mechanism, developed andenhanced by the French armorers around 1630. The French mechanism was used in the Balkan area especiallyduring the 19th century for the kubura flintlock pistols.The consolidation of the Ottoman authority in the Balkan area led to important changes in respect to the wayof life of the autochthon Christian population. In many towns from Kosovo and Metohija, Bosnia, Herzegovina,Montenegro, Macedonia, Northern Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece, the weaponry workshop productionwas significantly developed, during the 17th, 18th and especially in the 19th centuries. In the aforementionedcenters, the firearms were manufactured both for the local needs and for their trading in other provinces inthe Ottoman Empire. The weaponry workshops had been increasingly developed, especially in the peripheralpashaliks of the Ottoman Empire (Bosnia and Herzegovina), but also in the territories where the Ottomanauthority had been weakened and the anarchy danger had been as real as possible (Northern Albania). In theBalkan workshops, where the flintlock firearms were manufactured, both the barrels and the actual mechanismswere initially imported from Northern Italy. In time, especially in the 19th century, the autochthon armorersmanaged to manufacture the barrels (Prizren, Fojnica) and the flintlock mechanisms (Constantinople) locally,giving thus a particularity to the firearms of the late phase of the Empire.The pistol is a portable firearm, perfect for relatively short distance fights. The name of a pistol was closelyrelated to the place of manufacture and also to the materials used for its manufacture and decoration. The flintlockpistols were characterized by downwards grips, having long bulbs ended with a metallic button. The flintlockmechanism usually used was a Spanish mechanism also referred to as miquelet.Traditionally, the pistol was often referred to as kubura. The flintlock kubura was characterized by a downwardsgrip, with a massive metallic bulb and French type flintlock mechanism and an interior cock-spring. The kuburterm is a Turkish word, widely used in the Balkans, generally standing for a cavalry pistol. These types of firearmsare usually given the name of the manufacturing place. The widely spread kubura in the Balkanic area was thekubura pećanka, manufactured by the famous workshop from Peć (Metohija).Among the flintlock Balkan pistols, we should remind ledenica, considered to be the most elegant and luxuriousBalkan pistol in the 18th–19th centuries and the Albanian pistol of Elbasan, known under the name of „Rat Tail”.Referring to these firearms, besides kubura pećanka from the Balkan Peninsula, we should mention that otherkubure were manufactured at Foča (Eastern Herzegovina) or Shkodra (Northern Albania), both types being wellknownfor their rich ornaments made of silver and precious stones.The firearms collection from the Banat Museum in Timişoara holds three flintlock pistols and ten flintlockkubure manufactured in the Balkan workshops. Considering the sub-grouping classification, these firearms areclassified as follows: two fiintlock pistols belonging to Elbasan type (Central Albania), a Shkodra type flintlock pistol(Northern Albania), eight Peć flintlock kubure (Metohija) and two Foča flintlock kubure (Eastern Herzegovina).With a view to the age determination of the 13 exponents of the Banat Museum collection, they are datedbetween the mid 18th century (the Albanian pistols) and the mid 19th century (one of the flintlock pistol – namelythe Foča type).Considering the origin of the pistols’ components and the manner in which these became part of theaforementioned collection, things are not by far as simple as they seem to be at first sight. Most of the items thatare currently part of firearms collection the Banat Museum collection entered the institution’s inventory in thepre-war period, being a part of the old museum’s collection (the inventory of the Museum Society of History andArcheology – SMIA of Banat). In respect to the pre-war period, the Banat Museum of Timişoara archive keepsboth the SMIA inventory book and the old archive of the society, but the problem regarding the identificationof the components derives from the lack of clear correspondence between the old documents of the MuseumSociety and the present evidences from the Banat Museum of Timişoara, which were last reconstructed duringthe post-war period. Considering that most of the items that are part of the firearms collection had no pre-warinventory number and the lack of the interwar records (at least until to this date), the identification of both theitems and donors can be made only based on descriptions in the donation documents (The Historical Archiveof the Banat Museum in Timişoara). In this case, regarding the flintlock Balkan pistols, the identification of thedonors is practically impossible within the context in which the archive documents offer important informationsconnected to the donor and the historical context, but the effective descriptions of the components are most ofthe time too brief.However, after a careful analysis of the SMIA evidences, there was found that most of the Balkan origin itemsderive from the Bosnian area, representing donations of former Austro-Hungarian military participants to thefights for Bosnian pacification in 1878. Related to the Balkan pistols, considering the data provided by the firstinventory register of the Banat Museum, we can suggest the hypothesis according to which the 13 items are typicalto the Balkan workshops and especially contemporary to the yataghans and arnautka rifles, derive from Bosnia,being war captures which have been subsequently donated the museum. Since no data is available until this date,this will remain only a possible hypothesis.Instead of conclusions, we should mention the fact that during the 18th–19th centuries, numerous copies afterthe North–Italian pistols have been made in the Balkan Peninsula (especially Peć) or the western pistols have beenenhanced by being decorated in a Balkan manner (having added a wide silver plate on barrels, silver incrustationon grips etc.). The Balkan area was also known for its artisan workshops which manufactured the so-called „pistolsfor the poor”. All these items are also found in the Banat Museum’s collection, and they make a special group offirearms, which will be assessed in a future study.