The Mamluks of Egypt and the Moors of Spain adopted firearms before the Turks but it has been argued that it was the Ottomans, of all Muslim peoples, who used them with the greatest success. As far back as the 14th century, Venetian gunmaking techniques had already spread to the Balkans and cannon technology from Transylvania helped seal the Ottoman takeover of Istanbul in 1453.

This tüfenk (musket), is finely crafted, with a pattern-welded damascus barrel and a wood and bone stock inlaid with gold. The tüfenk was used by Janissaries (Ottoman infantry units) and its characteristics include a square-section butt, a cusp- or knob-shaped trigger without a trigger-guard, and a pronounced ‘prawl’ – the ridge where the butt meets the breech – to stop the hand slipping forward. The Ottomans made snaphance and miquelet tüfenks until the 19th century, long after they had become obsolete in the West.