In 1869, the Emir of Afghanistan, Sher Ali Khan, began a process to rapidly improve the quality and quantity of artillery pieces in the Afghan Army. Informed by the experiences of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839 to 1842) and internal territorial wars that he had previously fought, Sher Ali was determined to see his forces equipped with the latest rifled iron breech-loading guns. Whilst he was able to achieve this, his successes would be short-lived. Ultimately, failings in leadership and discipline would prove more important than his modernised guns.
Cannon
A Brief History of the Ramadan Cannon
The sun slips slowly and majestically behind the horizon, heralding the end of the Muslim fast. Yet another day on the Ramadan-calendar crossed out. Since everything in this day and age runs like clockwork, fasting Muslims glance impatiently at their watches and clocks spread throughout the house awaiting that exact time of the sun’s setting. Historically, however, there has been another, louder, more spectacular method of announcing ifṭār – the firing of a cannon.
6 Interesting MENA Firearms Seen in October 2019 Morphy Extraordinary, Sporting & Collector Firearms Auction Catalog
Morphy Auctions is one of the largest American auction houses and every year hosts multiple firearms auctions. Among these auctions, the most prominent ones in terms of the amount and significance of consigned lots are the Morphy Extraordinary Firearms Auctions. Browsing the catalogs of these auctions you can find a huge variety of rare, unique and historically significant guns – from old muzzleloading firearms to modern machine guns and everything in between. We browsed the online catalog of the upcoming October 2019 Extraordinary, Sporting & Collector Firearms Auction and found some of the most interesting lots related to the MENA region.