Jezail

{{Short description|Simple and cheap Afghan rifle}} The '''jezail'''<ref>From {{langx|fa|جزائل}} ''jazā'il'' or {{langx|ps|جزائل}}. The word is ultimately from the Arabic word {{lang|ar|جزائل}} ''jazā'il'', a broken plural of {{lang|ar|جزيل}} ''jazīl'', meaning "[something] big or thick".</ref><ref name=BurnellYule>{{cite book |last1=Burnell |first1=A. C. |last2=Yule |first2=Henry |title=A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words And Phrases: Hobson-Jobson |date=24 October 2018 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-60332-7 |page=474 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LMbADwAAQBAJ&dq=jazailchi+weapon&pg=PA474 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=Cannon-jezail /> (or ''jezzail''),<ref name=Ramsey2016>{{cite book |last1=Ramsey |first1=Syed |title=Tools of War: History of Weapons in Early Modern Times |date=1 September 2016 |publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd |isbn=978-93-86834-14-0 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=53HOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT219 |language=en |chapter=Jezail}}</ref> also spelled ''juzail'' (or ''juzzail''),<ref name=Cannon-jezail>{{cite book |last1=Cannon |first1=Garland Hampton |last2=Kaye |first2=Alan S. |title=The Arabic Contributions to the English Language: An Historical Dictionary |date=1994 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-03491-3 |page=220 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MiNWi1g3fJ4C&dq=jezail&pg=PA220 |language=en |chapter=jezail}}</ref> is a long-barrelled weapon used in Central Asia, British India, and parts of Middle East.<ref name=Ramsey2016 /><ref>For use in Central Asia, refer to: {{cite book |last1=Munis |first1=Shir Muhammad Mirab |last2=Agahi |first2=Muhammad Riza Mirab |title=Firdaws al-iqbāl: History of Khorezm |date=25 October 2021 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-49198-4 |page=584 |language=en}}</ref> A person operating it is called ''jazailchi''.<ref>Also spelled ''juzailchee'', ''jezailchee''. From {{lang|fa|جزائلچی}} ''jazā'ilchī'', also ''jazaerchi'' ({{langx|fa|جزائرچی}} ''jazā'erchī'').</ref><ref name=BurnellYule /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cannon |first1=Garland Hampton |last2=Kaye |first2=Alan S. |title=The Arabic Contributions to the English Language: An Historical Dictionary |date=1994 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-03491-3 |page=220 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MiNWi1g3fJ4C&dq=jezail&pg=PA220 |language=en |chapter=jezailchee}}</ref>

Jezails were used by the elite jazayerchi troops of Safavid and Afsharid Iran, notably during the Naderian Wars. It was the main weapon used by Pashtun tribesmen of Afghanistan in the 19th-century,<ref name=Adamec2011>{{cite book |last1=Adamec |first1=Ludwig W. |author-link=Ludwig W. Adamec |title=Historical Dictionary of Afghanistan |date=10 November 2011 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |isbn=978-0-8108-7957-7 |page=228 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tp5IrLhWbTkC&dq=jezail&pg=PA228 |language=en}}</ref> who deposed Shah Shuja<ref name="1966-08-26-12">{{Cite web|title='Ko-i-Staun Foot Soldiery in Summer Costume, Actively employed among the Rocks' {{!}} Online Collection {{!}} National Army Museum, London|url=https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1966-08-26-12|access-date=2020-08-29|website=collection.nam.ac.uk}}</ref> and fought in the First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars.

==Features== [[File:Mir Alam of Kohistan region in Afghanistan (full page in book) cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|Lithograph dated during the First Anglo-Afghan War of a Tajik warrior (Kohistani) and his jezail.<ref name="1966-08-26-12"/>]]

Jezails (in Afghanistan) were often handmade weapons. That means, unlike other weapons of the time which were plain and utilitarian, jezails were tended to be well-crafted, personal, and each varied widely in their construction (and decoration).<ref name=Ramsey2016 />

Jezails have very long barrels,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stone |first1=George Cameron |title=A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times |date=13 March 2013 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-13129-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=chVfUm2Hz3MC&dq=jezail&pg=PA322 |language=en |page=322 |quotation= I have seen one, in a private collection, that was about seven feet lonng and of one inch bore.}}</ref> which is uncommon in European counterparts (aside from the Spanish {{Interlanguage link multi|espingarda|es|espingarda}} of the 15th century), but were common in the American rifles, such as the Kentucky rifle.<ref>The jezail is sometimes called "Afghanistan's Kentucky rifle". {{cite book |last1=Silinsky |first1=Mark |title=The Taliban: Afghanistan's Most Lethal Insurgents |date=17 April 2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=978-0-313-39898-8 |page=192 |language=en}}</ref> These American rifles were of a smaller caliber (typically {{convert|.35|to|.45|in|mm|abbr=out}}) as their primary use was hunting, while jezails had a caliber of {{convert|.50|to|.75|in|mm|abbr=out}} and larger, making them suitable for warfare. Having a long length, jezail was heavier (typically {{convert|12|to|14|lb|kg|abbr=out}}) than typical muskets of the time (typically {{convert|9|to|10|lb|kg|abbr=out}}). This allowed the use of larger calibers. The heavy weight of the jezail also reduced recoil.<ref name=Ramsey2016 /><ref name=Jalali2017>{{cite book |last1=Jalali |first1=Ali Ahmad |title=A Military History of Afghanistan: From the Great Game to the Global War on Terror |date=17 March 2017 |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=978-0-7006-2407-2 |page=99 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KhGrEAAAQBAJ&dq=jezail&pg=PA99 |language=en}}</ref> The jezail has a relatively long range of {{convert|500|yards}},<ref name=Stronge2014 /> In comparison, a Brown Bess had an effective range of {{convert|150|yards}} and accurate range of {{convert|50|yards}}.<ref name=Jalali2017 /> According to some British soldiers, jezails fired a ball three times larger than that of a musket ball, with an accurate range of {{convert|400|yards}}.<ref name=Jalali2017 />

The main weakness of the jezail was its low rate of fire: it fired one shot every two or three minutes, in comparison to two or three shots per minute by a musket. This made it unsuitable during offensive action, while a deadly weapon as a sniper weapon in the mountains, as well as against advancing forces on an open battlefield.<ref name=Jalali2017 /> In an attack, a soldier carried two or three jezails on his horse and after shooting with them, would return to a safe distance to reload, or proceed with hand-to-hand combat.<ref name=Jalali2017 /><ref name=Adamec2011 />

Although jezails were mostly smoothbore weapons, some had their barrels rifled, which, combined with the barrel's long length, made it a very accurate weapon for its time.<ref name=Ramsey2016 />

The lock and trigger mechanism was either a matchlock or a flintlock. Due to the complexity of the latter and difficulty of manufacture, many jezails used the lock mechanism from captured or broken Brown Bess muskets.<ref name=Ramsey2016 /><ref name=Stronge2014>{{cite book |last1=Stronge |first1=Charles |title=Sniper in Action: History, Equipment, Techniques |date=5 March 2014 |publisher=Amber Books Ltd |isbn=978-1-907446-84-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8g_PBQAAQBAJ&dq=jezail&pg=PT29 |language=en}}</ref>

A unique feature of the jezail was the handmade stock, which had a distinctive curve and was intricately decorated.<ref>A description from the British Library dating to the First Anglo-Afghan War: {{Quotation|They loved to decorate their rifles: Rattray writes of finding one adorned with human teeth.|source={{Cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000000562u00012000.html |title=Ko-i-staun foot soldiery in summer costume (lithograph, British Library) |access-date=2011-03-18 |archive-date=2012-10-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021000354/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000000562u00012000.html |url-status=dead }} }}</ref> The role of the curve is debated. It may have made the stock lighter while still being able to be fired from the shoulder safely. It also allows firing by grasping the weapon near the trigger, like a pistol, while the curved portion is tucked under the forearm (as opposed to being held to the shoulder), allowing firing with one hand while mounted. In this case the flash pan is dangerously too close to the face and the aiming would also be more difficult, therefore this method was probably used only while mounted. The weapon could otherwise be fired from a forked A-shaped rest (which is common in Central Asia),<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stone |first1=George Cameron |title=A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times |date=13 March 2013 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-13129-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=chVfUm2Hz3MC&dq=jezail&pg=PA322 |language=en |page=323}}</ref> a horn, or a metal bipod,<ref name=Ramsey2016 /><ref name=Stronge2014 /> which further improved accuracy.<ref name=Johnson2011>{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Robert |title=The Afghan Way of War: How and Why They Fight |date=12 December 2011 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-979856-8 |page=85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EIwwdLiEf4AC&dq=jezail&pg=PA85 |language=en}}</ref>

== Operational history ==

=== In Persia === {{also|Military of Afsharid Iran#Jazāyerchi}} [[File:Jahangusha-ye Naderi 06.jpg|thumb|The elite jazayerchi unit shoot from a hill as Nader Shah's forces push the Ottoman army back at the Battle of Yeghevārd.]]

The ''jazayer'' ({{langx|fa|جزایر}} ''jazāyer'' or {{langx|fa|جزائر}} ''jazā'er'') was the primary weapon of the elite military unit ''jazayerchi'' ({{lang|fa|جزایرچی}} ''jazāyerchī'') introduced by the Safavid Shah Abbas II. Due to its heavy weight, it was fired on a tripod.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bläsing |first1=Uwe |last2=Arakelova |first2=Victoria |last3=Weinreich |first3=Matthias |title=Studies on Iran and The Caucasus: In Honour of Garnik Asatrian |date=14 July 2015 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-30206-8 |page=82 |language=en}}</ref>

The Safavid general Nader Shah, who later founded the Afsharid dynasty, also maintained and trained an elite ''jazayerchi'' troops, which he used in his Wars with great effect.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Axworthy |first1=Michael |title=Sword of Persia: Nader Shah, from Tribal Warrior to Conquering Tyrant |date=24 March 2010 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85772-416-8 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Anglo-Afghan Wars === thumb|Afghan foot soldiers in 1841. [[File:Group of Afridi fighters in 1878.jpg|thumb|Group of Pashtun Tribesmen (Afridi) fighters in 1878, pictured with their jezails, during the Second Anglo-Afghan War.]] During this period, the jezail was the primary weapon used by the Pashtuns and was used with great effect during the First Anglo-Afghan War.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Aga Jan, an officer of the Kohistan rangers; Meer Humzu, trooper of the first regiment, Janbaz cavalry; a serjeant of Affghan infantry; Ahmed Khan, private Kohistan rangers|url=http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47d9-6a3d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99|access-date=2020-07-24|website=NYPL Digital Collections|language=en}}</ref> The range and accuracy of jezail, combined with the sniping tactics of the Afghans, made it superior to the British Brown Bess smoothbore muskets.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hodge |first1=Carl Cavanagh |title=War, Strategy and the Modern State, 1792–1914 |date=25 November 2016 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-315-39137-3 |page=57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iCAlDwAAQBAJ&dq=jezail&pg=PA57 |language=en}}</ref> The latter was effective at no more than 150 yards, and unable to be consistently accurate beyond 50 yards. Because of their advantage in range, Pashtun marksmen typically used the jezail from the tops of cliffs along valleys and defiles during ambushes.<ref name=Jalali2017 /> Sir Charles Napier claims however that the musket was overall the superior weapon.<ref name=Adamec2011 /> The jezailchees repeatedly inflicted heavy casualties on the British during their 1842 retreat from Kabul to Jalalabad.

In the First Anglo-Afghan War the British established a cantonment outside of Kabul with dirt walls approximately waist high. Surrounding the cantonment were several abandoned forts which, although out of range of British muskets, were close enough for jezail fire. When ghazi and other Pashtuns forces besieged Kabul and the cantonment, they occupied the forts and used them to snipe at British forces from a safe range.{{fact|date=February 2021}} The Pashtun marksmen typically fired jezail while entrenched in a ''pushtah'' (individual rampart made of rocks).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Society |first1=Pakistan Historical |title=Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society |date=2006 |publisher=Pakistan Historical Society. |page=83 |language=en}}</ref>

A description from the British Library dating to the First Anglo-Afghan War: {{Quotation|Afghan snipers were expert marksmen and their juzzails fired roughened bullets, long iron nails or even pebbles over a range of some 250 metres. The Afghans could fling the large rifles across their shoulders as if they were feathers and spring nimbly from rock to rock.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000000562u00012000.html |title=Ko-i-staun foot soldiery in summer costume (lithograph, British Library) |access-date=2011-03-18 |archive-date=2012-10-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021000354/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000000562u00012000.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

At any rate, the British histories that focus on the claimed superiority of the jezail as weapon do not explain the failures of the jezailchis to halt British offensives in 1842.<ref name=Johnson2011 />

=== In India === ''Jazail'' or ''Jazair'' in India was a swivel gun falling between a firearm and an artillery, with a length of {{convert|7|to|8|feet}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ramsey |first1=Syed |title=Tools of War: History of Weapons in Medieval Times |date=1 September 2016 |publisher=Vij Books India Pvt Ltd |isbn=978-93-86834-13-3 |language=en}}</ref> The operator of the gun was called ''jazā'il-andāz'' or ''jazā'ilchī'' in Hindustani language.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Forbes |first1=Duncan |title=A Smaller Hindustani and English Dictionary |date=1861 |publisher=Sampson, Low |page=203 |language=en}}</ref> Related words or spellings are ''gingall'', ''janjal'', ''ganjal'', ''gazail''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Butalia |first1=Romesh C. |title=The Evolution of the Artillery in India: From the Battle of Plassey (1757) to the Revolt of 1857 |date=1998 |publisher=Allied Publishers |isbn=978-81-7023-872-0 |page=52 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Contemporary use === The jezail was still in use in Afghanistan in the 20th century.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allan |first1=James W. |last2=Gilmour |first2=Brian J. J. |title=Persian Steel: The Tanavoli Collection |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press for the Board of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford and the British Institute of Persian Studies |isbn=978-0-19-728025-6 |page=158 |language=en}}</ref> It was replaced by the Martini-Henry and other domestic and foreign rifles.<ref name=Adamec2011 /> Limited numbers were used by Mujahideen rebels during the Soviet–Afghan War. Jezails can still be found in arms bazaars of Afghanistan.<ref name=Adamec2011 />

Derivatives of the jezail, barely recognizable, and usually termed "country-made weapons", are in use in rural India—especially in the state of Uttar Pradesh.{{citation needed|date=July 2013}}

==In English literature== The jezail is the weapon which wounded Dr. Watson—the fictional biographer of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes—in the Battle of Maiwand during his military service in Afghanistan. There are discrepancies regarding the location of the wound, though; in ''A Study in Scarlet'', Watson mentions it to be in the shoulder,<ref>Doyle, Arthur Conan. ''A Study in Scarlet'', 1887</ref> while in ''The Sign of the Four'', he mentions his leg,<ref>Doyle, Arthur Conan. ''The Sign of the Four'', 1890</ref> and in "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" he refers to the Jezail bullet being "in one of my limbs".<ref name=Ramsey2016 />

The jezail is mentioned repeatedly in some of Wilbur Smith's books, notably ''Monsoon''. It was also mentioned in the George MacDonald Fraser adventure ''Flashman'', whose protagonist describes the slaughter by Afghan jezailchis during the 1842 retreat from Kabul.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fraser |first=George MacDonald |title=Flashman : from the Flashman papers, 1839-1842 |date=1969 |isbn=0-257-66799-7 |location=London |oclc=29733 |quote=At first it was well enough, and we were unmolested. It looked as though Akbar had his folk under control, and then suddenly the jezzails began to crack from the ledges, and men began to fall, and the army staggered blindly in the snow.}}</ref>

The weapon appears in Rudyard Kipling's 1886 poem "Arithmetic on the Frontier", where the low cost of the weapon is contrasted with the relatively expensive training and education of British officers:

{{poemquote| A scrimmage in a Border Station A canter down some dark defile Two thousand pounds of education Drops to a ten-rupee jezail.}}

In Kipling's novel ''The Man Who Would Be King'', the Kohat Jezail is mentioned along with the more advanced British rifles Snider and Martini.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Man Who Would be King | date=10 May 2021 | url=https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/tale/the-man-who-would-be-king.htm }}</ref><ref name=Ramsey2016 />

P. G. Wodehouse in ''Jill the Reckless'' (1920) describes how the character Uncle Chris, in India during his first hill-campaign, would "walk up and down in front of his men under a desultory shower of jezail-bullets".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wodehouse |first=P.G. |title=The Little Warrior |year=1920 |chapter=XX, part 3}}</ref>

The rifle is also mentioned by Brian Jacques in his adventure novel, ''Voyage of Slaves''.

== In popular culture == * ''Team Fortress 2'' features the "Bazaar Bargain", a weapon for the Sniper modeled after the Jezail. * In the first case of ''The Great Ace Attorney'', the victim is Dr. John Watson (changed to "Wilson" in the localization). His killer is revealed to be Jezaille Brett, a woman whose name references Watson's wounding by Jezail rifle in the original books. * Jezails are one of the units available for Skaven factions in Total War: Warhammer III

== See also == * Moukahla, a similar North African musket * Kariofili, musket of the Greek revolution with similar stock shape * Tançica, a long barreled musket from Albania * Shishane, miquelet used in the Ottoman Empire * Džeferdar, ornate musket from Montenegro * Boyliya, Bulgarian musket with unique lock * Khirimi, Caucasian miquelet musket * Arquebus

==References== ;Citations {{reflist}} ;Bibliography * Tanner, Stephen, (2002) ''Afghanistan: A Military History From Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban'', Da Capo Press, {{ISBN|0-306-81233-9}} * "Firearms of the Islamic world in the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait" By Robert Elgood

{{Early firearms}}

Category:Indo-Persian weaponry Category:Muskets Category:18th-century weapons Category:19th-century weapons Category:Weapons of Afghanistan Category:Rifles of Pakistan Category:Rifles of India