The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s3.2

c11.s3.2

Dowson (Ell., vii, 573) must here have read *nīmchah* and translates a "short sword", but all the copies of the text that I have seen read *tamanchah*, i. e. a pistol. Probably the pistol was confined to the higher ranks of the nobles. Its rarity is shown by these being so few examples in the Indian Museum. Egerton's "Handbook" has only three entries, and one of these refers to a pair of English pattern, which must be quite modern. But Ashob, fol. 61a, writing in 1196 H. about the shoe-sellers' riot at the great mosque in Dihlī in the year 1141 H. (11th March 1729), speaks of the soldiers taking part in it as having European *pistōl* and *tabānchah*.