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Jezail Джезайл (иногда джеззайл на языке пушту) - простое, экономичное и часто самодельное дульнозарядное ружьё, в прошлом использовавшееся в Британской Индии, Центральной Азии и, частично, Среднем Востоке.

Возможности
Джезайлы были в основном самодельным оружием и, таким образом, отличались немного в своей конструкции. Джезайлы были персональным оружием, и, в отличие от типичного оружия тех времен, которое было более ровным и утилитарным, джезайлы как правило были сделаны хорошо и часто были украшены различными художественными изображениями.

Джезайлы как правило имели очень длинные стволы. Подобное длинноствольное оружие никогда не было типичным для Европы и изредка встречалось в Америке в виде ружья Кентукки. Американский вариант использовался для охоты и, как правило был малого калибра (.35-.45). Джезайлы обычно использовались в военных целях и поэтому их калибр был больше нежели у американских ружей: использовался калибр от .50 до .75 и выше. Больший калибр стал возможен благодаря тому длинному стволу джезайла, что делало его тяжелее мушкетов тех времен: от 5,4 до 6,3 килограмм по сравнению с мушкетами от 4 до 4,5 килограмм. Больший вес джезайлов позволял им быть менее подверженным отдаче.

Многие джезайлы были гладкоствольными, но у некоторых присутствовали нарезные стволы. Нарезка, в сочетании с большой длиной ствола, делала это оружие очень точным дял того времени. Длинный ствол делал перезарядку более простой сверху

Many jezails were smooth bore weapons, but some had their barrels rifled. The rifling, combined with the barrel's long length, made these weapons very accurate for their time. The long barrel made reloading easier from horseback, as the butt stock would rest upon the ground while the muzzle would be at eye level.

The firing mechanism was typically either a matchlock or a flintlock. Since flintlock mechanisms were complex and difficult to manufacture, many jezails used the lock mechanism from stolen or broken Brown Bess muskets.

The stocks were hand made and were very ornately decorated. Jezail stocks also featured a very distinctive curve which is not seen in the stocks of other muskets. The exact function of this curve is debated. Some say that it is purely decorative in nature. Others say that the curve of the stock allowed it to be tucked under the arm and cradled tightly against the body, as opposed to being held to the shoulder like a typical musket or rifle. The argument against this method of firing is that the flash pan would be dangerously close to the face and the weapon would be harder to aim. It is more likely that the rifle was only tucked under the arm of the rider whilst riding horse or camel. It has also been stated that the weapon was fired by grasping the stock near the trigger, like a pistol, while the curved portion is tucked under the firers forearm. This allowed the rifle to be fired with one hand while mounted.

Jezails were often fired from a forked rest, or a horn or metal bi-pod.

Англо-афганская война
During this period the jezail was the primary ranged weapon of Afghan warriors and was used with great effect against British troops. British Brown Bess smoothbore muskets were effective at only 150 yards and accurate at 50 yards. Because of their advantage in range, Afghan rebels typically used the jezail from the tops of cliffs along valleys and defiles during ambushes. This tactic repeatedly devastated the British during their doomed retreat from Kabul to Jalalabad. Despite the advantages over the Brown Bess, British forces were typically able to defeat jezail armed Afghans when they fought on relatively flat terrain.

In the First Anglo-Afghan War the British established a cantonment outside of Kabul with dirt walls approximately waist high. Surrounding the cantonment were several abandoned forts which, although out of range of British muskets, were close enough for jezail fire. When ghazi and other Afghan forces besieged Kabul and the cantonment, they occupied the forts and used them to snipe British forces from a safe range.

A description from the British Library dating to the First Anglo-Afghan War:

В британской литературе
The jezail is most famous, at least in Western literature, as the weapon which wounded Dr. Watson—the fictional biographer of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes—in the Battle of Maiwand during his military service in Afghanistan. In A Study in Scarlet Watson mentions being wounded in the shoulder. However, in The Sign of the Four Watson gives the location of the wound as in his leg. In The Noble Bachelor Watson refers to the Jezail bullet being "in one of my limbs." These discrepancies have caused debate by Sherlock Holmes fans about which of these locations is the "correct" location of the wound.

The jezail is mentioned repeatedly in some of Wilbur Smith's books, most notably "Monsoon".

The jezail was also mentioned in the George MacDonald Fraser adventure Flashman, whose protagonist describes the awful slaughter of British Army troops retreating from Kabul to Jalalabad by Afghan jezailchis.

It is used as a metaphor of a cheap weapon in Rudyard Kipling's poetry describing British casualties in colonial wars:
 * A scrimmage in a Border Station
 * A canter down some dark defile
 * Two thousand pounds of education
 * Drops to a ten-rupee jezail.

Пэлем Грэнвил в "Неуёмной Джилл" описывал, как Дядя Крис мог "ходить взад и вперед перед своими людьми под отрывочным огнем пуль из джезайлов" во время его горе-кампании по Индии.

Современное использование
Джезайл, судя по всему, более не имеет широкого распространения в любых войнах. Однако, некоторое их количество было использовано афганской милицией во время Афганской войны. В сельской Индии, в особенности в штате Уттар-Прадеш, использовались производные джезайла, малопохожие на оригинал, часто называемые "сельским оружием".

Примечания

 * Таннер, Стивен, (2002) Afghanistan: A Military History From Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban, Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-81233-9
 * Роберт Элгуд Firearms of the Islamic world in the Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait