European Blow Gun Documentation?
Jim
>
I have often read that blowguns were introduced to Europe circa the
14th century by the Arabs as a hunting weapon for small game. They
were supposedly used in Italy as weapons of war during the renaissance.
Has anyone ever seen any actual medieval or renaissance documentation
(text or illustration) of the use of blowguns in Europe in
pre-Columbian times? If so please apprise me as to where.
>
Jim Koch
BernardZ
alc...@en.com says...
> Gentlemen,
> >
> I have often read that blowguns were introduced to Europe circa the
> 14th century by the Arabs as a hunting weapon for small game. They
> were supposedly used in Italy as weapons of war during the renaissance.
I doubt it. But if someone can correct I would like to know as a blow
gun might have been invented in many places and time.
However it appeared about the fifteen century in Malaysia. In two places
it appears to have been used very effectively in Malay and South
America. Part of the reason is that its fine for small game but to use
it effectively against large game you need a poison. These places had
good poisons.
> Has anyone ever seen any actual medieval or renaissance documentation
> (text or illustration) of the use of blowguns in Europe in
> pre-Columbian times? If so please apprise me as to where.
No.
The only times, I have heard of them actually used in warfare is by the
Dyaks of Malay against the Japanese in WW2 but not in battle but as a
silent killer.
--
A quick useful to determining the intended victim in a horror movie is
to try to determine the person who has no family in the story.
Observations of Bernard - No 95
Yusuf B Gursey
Jim wrote:
> Gentlemen,
> >
> I have often read that blowguns were introduced to Europe circa the
a blowgun as the origin for the perso-turkish word tufang / tufak etc.
"musket" seems familiar to me from somewhere but I cannot yet find the
reference.
Yusuf B Gursey
Yusuf B Gursey wrote:
> Jim wrote:
> > Gentlemen,
> > >
> > I have often read that blowguns were introduced to Europe circa the
>
> a blowgun as the origin for the perso-turkish word tufang / tufak etc.
> "musket" seems familiar to me from somewhere but I cannot yet find the
> reference.
briefly mentioned here:
http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/002320.html
Jim
>
Thanks for the link. I am sending a list of names for blowguns in
various languages to pals of mine in Lithuania, Hungary, Italy,
Germany, and France to help in the search.. I'll add "tufang" to the
list. I am still hoping someone somewhere will recall an illustration
or a text reference. We'll see.
>
Jim Koch, Cleveland
Jim
>
My French connection came through. Here is the link
http://www.fsba.fr/?page=home&id=35
>
Jim Koch, Cleveland
Yusuf B Gursey
persian still differentiates between tufak "blowgun" (but also in
Steingass with "musket" as an alternative meaning, more recent
transcriptions are tofak ; evidently the meaning blowgun is still
current as Aryanpur has it so listed) and tufang "musket, rifle,
shotgun" etc.) while tufang / tofang is "musket, rifle shotgun etc.".
in turkish the current word for any long barelled small caliber firearm
(anything not a "handgun" or "cannon" or "mortar") is tu"fek and
tu"feng merely the old literary version of the word, tu"fek being just
the colloquial variant formerly. any differentiation inturkish seems
not to have survived into my 19th cent. dictionaries.
Yusuf B Gursey
Yusuf B Gursey wrote:
> Jim wrote:
> > Yusuf,
> > >
> > Thanks for the link. I am sending a list of names for blowguns in
> > various languages to pals of mine in Lithuania, Hungary, Italy,
> > Germany, and France to help in the search.. I'll add "tufang" to the
> > list. I am still hoping someone somewhere will recall an illustration
> > or a text reference. We'll see.
> > >
> > Jim Koch, Cleveland
>
> persian still differentiates between tufak "blowgun" (but also in
> Steingass with "musket" as an alternative meaning, more recent
Steingass: tufak , tufak-i dahan {"mouth tufak"-YG} A tube for shooting
clay balls through by the force of breath ; a musket (see tufang)
> transcriptions are tofak ; evidently the meaning blowgun is still
> current as Aryanpur has it so listed) and tufang "musket, rifle,
> shotgun" etc.) while tufang / tofang is "musket, rifle shotgun etc.".
> in turkish the current word for any long barelled small caliber firearm
> (anything not a "handgun" or "cannon" or "mortar") is tu"fek and
> tu"feng merely the old literary version of the word, tu"fek being just
> the colloquial variant formerly. any differentiation inturkish seems
> not to have survived into my 19th cent. dictionaries.
well, perhaps not surprising as the Ottomans utilized firepower earlier
and more extensively than the Mamlukes or Safavids.
Yusuf B Gursey
a book referencing a publication of the Topkapi Museum arms collection
says that blowguns survive (the book was late 60'sto early 70's) around
Gaziantep (Turkey), that's not too far from the Syrian border just
about due north of Aleppo (Syria), for bird hunting and are locally
called tu"fegu"