The prangi, paranki, piranki, pirangi, farangi, firingi, or firingiha was a type of cannon produced by

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. It was subsequently copied and produced in other place such as by

Mughal empire The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

under

Babur Babur ( fa, , lit= tiger, translit= Bābur; ; 14 February 148326 December 1530), born Mīrzā Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his ...

. Prangi was a breech-loading swivel gun.

Etymology

Prangi was written in Ottoman sources in various words as prankı, pirankı, parangi, parangı, pranga, pranku, prangu, and parangu. The Ottoman term goes back to the Italian/Spanish ''braga'', short for "''petriero'' ''a barga''" and "''pedrero'' ''de'' ''braga''", a small breech-loading swivel gun.Agoston, Gabor (2019)
''Firangi'', ''Zarbzan, and Rum Dasturi'': The Ottomans and the Diffusion of Firearms in Asia
In Pál Fodor, Nándor E. Kovács and Benedek Péri eds., ''Şerefe. Studies in Honour of Prof. Géza Dávid on His Seventieth Birthday'', Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Budapest: Research Center for the Humanities, 89–104. ''Braga'' itself means "pants" or "breech". Babur emperor in India called this weapon firingiha and farangi. Tamil and Telugu speakers call it pīranki and pīrangi.

History and description

Prangi is a small Ottoman breech-loading swivel gun, firing 150 gram shots, they were built mostly by cast bronze, but iron ones is also used. The Ottomans used the prangi from the mid-15th century onwards in field battles, aboard their ships, and in their forts, where prangis often comprised the majority of the ordnance. At the end of the 15th century Ottoman

galley A galley is a type of ship that is propelled mainly by oars. The galley is characterized by its long, slender hull, shallow draft, and low freeboard (clearance between sea and gunwale). Virtually all types of galleys had sails that could be used ...

had a big cannon and 4 guns (''darbzen'') and 8 ''prangi'' cannons. These ships were 42-43 meters long with three sails carrying about 328 people. Prangi was a standard piece of Ottoman secondary naval armament. An Ottoman naval record book of inventory and survey dated 10 April 1488 mentioned that Ottoman ''barça'' (barque) had 35 prangi, ''agrıpar'' ( galleas) had 16 prangi, ''kadırga'' (galley) had 8 prangi, ''kalıt'' (

galliot A galiot, galliot or galiote, was a small galley boat propelled by sail or oars. There are three different types of naval galiots that sailed on different seas. A ''galiote'' was a type of French flat-bottom river boat or barge and also a flat- ...

) and ''kayık'' (

fusta The fusta or fuste (also called foist) was a narrow, light and fast ship with shallow draft, powered by both oars and sail—in essence a small galley. It typically had 12 to 18 two-man rowing benches on each side, a single mast with a lateen (t ...

) had 4 prangi.

References

{{Artillery of the Middle Ages Firearm terminology Naval artillery Cannon Artillery of the Ottoman Empire Indo-Persian weaponry

Etymology

History and description

See also

References