The Black Sea region of Turkey has an important place in history in terms of weapons production. You can come across Black Sea brands such as TİSAŞ and GİRSAN in many places. However, this region stands out not only with its weapon factories, but also with its handmade weapons. In this article we will examine a pistol recently rediscovered in a drawer after many years forgotten.
Craft Production
The Khyber Diaries: A Pistol Component Shop
An often-misunderstood subject is how Khyber gunsmiths make their extensive selection of arms in the modern day. A major myth propagated by misinformed persons is the belief that gunsmiths of the Khyber region fabricate the parts for their firearms from scratch, by hand. The truth is, we aren’t living in the early to mid-1900s anymore and these smiths have no need to make these by hand – for the most part and haven’t done so for a few decades now.
Underground Military Production In Gaza – Part 2
In the first article of this series on Palestinian underground weapons manufacturing, we reviewed some of the weaponry made locally by Hamas including pistols, submachine guns and anti-tank rifles. In this article, we will continue to explore more of their production capabilities. Check out part one of this series here.
The Furniture of the Middle East
Throughout the MENA region, we see the private sale of firearms online but they often get in the way of the more interesting things in the photographs – the furniture! In this article, we will examine some of the vibrant and varied furniture spotted in numerous Middle-Eastern countries, written as a joint project by several Silah Report contributors.
V31: Persian Fire and Steel With Dr. Manouchehr Khorasani
In this episode, Miles and Dr. Manouchehr Khorasani dive deep into the amazing history of firearms in Persia throughout different time periods as well as the cultural and religious relation with weapons. Dr. Khorasani is a historian who has delved deep into the history of Persian arms and armor, including Persian martial arts. He has an incredibly vast knowledge of the subjects and authored seven books and won three major book prizes.
Albanians Fighting in Syria: Xhemati Alban in 2020 – Part 1
This article is the first of a four part series where we will focus on the weapons seen in the propaganda of Xhemati Alban, an ethnic Albanian insurgent group operating in Syria, published in 2020.
Underground Military Production In Gaza – Part 1
From 1948 to the present time, many battles had taken place in the Middle East as part of the Arab-Israeli conflict, some countries have been relying on external sources to supply them with weapons needed for fighting, but historically it has not only been official governments which have clashed with Israel. There are also some political parties and militias which couldn’t simply import weapons officially from a foreign source so they have to resort to plan B – making their own tools of war themselves. In this article we will take a look at one of the main players in the Middle East conflict; the HAMAS movement and its military wing the Ezz el-Din al-Qassam brigades, who operate in Gaza-Palestine.
Exploring the Etymological Origin of the so-called “Technical”
The term technical as a designation for light improvised fighting vehicles is quite the neologism (a word or term which has entered use relatively recently), which has increasingly entered common vernacular, though not yet fully accepted into mainstream military parlance of professional First World armies. The latter often speak instead of a Non-Standard Tactical Vehicle (NSTV), which quite sufficiently covers what a technical actually is. In this article we’ll examine the etymological origins of the ‘technical’.
The Khyber Diaries: A Glimpse Into An ‘Antique’ Arms Shop
An often-nostalgic thing to do is reminisce of the arms shops in the days of old. Those well-stocked dealerships. They were once a lot like Aladdin’s cave with large arrays of plentiful, but now hard-to-find arms on display and for sale, at extremely affordable prices by today’s standard. Luckily, we can occasionally encounter some remnants of these days in Pakistan where an abundance of now-antiquated firearms are still to be found in the arms bazaars of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within places like the infamous town of Darra Adamkhel and to a lesser degree, in those within and close to Peshawar city.
The Beretta PX5 – Yes, You Heard Right
We’re all familiar with the somewhat intriguing Beretta PX4 9×19mm self-loading pistol but there is another Beretta on the market! Well, it may not actually be a genuine Beretta product or easily available at your local dealership but it certainly has the look and appeal of a Beretta firearm at the very least.