Jezail: Difference between revisions

The '''jezail''' or ''jezzail'' ( {{lang-ps|جزائل}}), ultimately from the plural form {{lang-ar|جزایل}}, "long [barrels]") wasis a simple, cost-efficient and often handmade long arm commonly used in [[CentralSouth Asia]] and parts of the [[Middle East]] in the past. It was popular amongst the [[Pashtuns|Pashtun]] tribesmen , who deposed king [[Shah Shujah Durrani|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> andJezails were primarily utilizedused in the [[First Anglo-Afghan War|First]] and [[Second Anglo-Afghan War]]s by [[Pashtuns|Pashtun]] tribesmen.

[[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 Pashtun tribesmen (from the [[Kapisa Province|Ghizai tribe]]) and his jezail.<ref name=":0">{{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=2020-07-24|website=collection.nam.ac.uk}}<"/ref>]]

Jezails were generally handmade weapons, and consequently they widely varied widely in their construction. Jezails were seen as very personal weapons, and unlike the typical military weapons of the time which were very plain and utilitarian, jezails tended to be well crafted and were usually intricately decorated.

Jezails tended to have very long barrels. Such lengths were never common in European rifles (with the exception of the Spanish "{{Interlanguage link multi|espingarda" <small>([[:|es:Espingarda|es]])</small>espingarda}} circa 15th century), but were more common in American rifles, such as the [[Kentucky Riflerifle]]. The American rifles were used for hunting, and tended to be of a smaller caliber (with {{convert|.35 |to |.45 or so|in|mm|abbr=out}} being typical). Jezails were usually designed for warfare, and therefore tended to be of larger calibers than the American rifles, with {{convert|.50 |to |.75|in|mm|abbr=out}} caliber and larger being common. Larger calibers were possible because the long length of the typical jezail meant that it was heavier than typical [[musket]]s of the time. Jezails typically weighed around {{convert|12 |to |14 pounds|lb|kg|abbr=out}}, compared to {{convert|9 |to |10 pounds|lb|kg|abbr=out}} for a typical musket. The heavy weight of the jezail allowed the rifle itself to absorb more energy from the round, imparting less recoil to the weapon's user.

Many jezails were smooth bore[[smoothbore]] weapons, but some had their barrels [[rifled]]. The rifling, combined with the barrel's long length, made these weapons very accurate for their time.

During this period, the jezail was the primary weapon used by the [[Pashtun tribes|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> British [[Brown Bess]] smoothbore muskets were effective at no more than 150 yards, and unable to be consistently accurate beyond 50 yards{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}. Because of their advantage in range, Pashtun marksmen typically used the jezail from the tops of cliffs along valleys and [[Defile (geography)|defiles]] during ambushes. This tactic repeatedly inflicted heavy casualties on the British during their [[1842 retreat from Kabul]] to [[Jalalabad]]. Despite the advantages over the Brown Bess, British forces were typically able to defeat jezail armed Pashtuns when they fought on relatively flat terrain.{{fact|date=February 2021}}

{{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. They loved to decorate their rifles: [Lieutenant [James] Rattray | Rattray]] writes of finding one adorned with human teeth.<ref>[http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/apac/other/019xzz000000562u00012000.html Ko-i-staun foot soldiery in summer costume (lithograph, British Library)]</ref>}}

The jezail is mentioned repeatedly in some of Wilbur Smith's books, most notably "Monsoon". It was also mentioned in the [[George MacDonald Fraser]] adventure ''[[Flashman (novel)|Flashman]]'', whose protagonist describes the awful slaughter of British troops retreating from [[Kabul]] to [[Jalalabad]] by Pashtun jezailchis.<ref>{{factCite book |last=Fraser |first=George MacDonald |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/29733 |title=Flashman : from the Flashman papers, 1839-1842 |date=February1969 2021|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>

ItThe weapon appears in [[Rudyard Kipling|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:

The jezail no longer sees widespread use in warfare of any nature. Limited numbers were, however, used by [[Mujahideen]] rebels during the [[Soviet–Afghan War]]. Derivatives of the jezail, barely recognizable, and usually termed '[[improvised firearm|country-made weapons]]', are in use in rural [[India]]—especially in the state of [[Uttar Pradesh]].{{citation needed|date=July 2013}}