The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s3.1

c11.s3.1

This weapon was the *tamanchah* or *tamānchah* (Steingass, 819, a sharp blow, a pistol). It does not appear in the list in the *Āīn*, an omission not to be wondered at when we remember that the *Āīn* was composed in 1596—7, while the pistol does not seem to have been known even in Europe much before 1544 (H. Wilkinson, Engines of War, 58). The pistol was in use in India, to some extent at any rate, early in the 18th century. For instance, it was with a shot from a pistol that in October 1720 a young Sayyad, related to Husain ‘Alī Khān, killed that nobleman’s assassin (Mhd Qāsim, Lāhorī, *Ibratnāmah*).