Egyptian Military Rifles - By Randy Chamberlain
The Israeli Armed Forces produced many powerful and reliable
firearms such as the popular Uzi, the Galil Assault rifle, Dror Light Machine
Gun and the Desert Eagle pistol.
However, Israel isn’t the only Middle East nation with a significant firearms
industry. Egypt has also developed
weapons domestically with a goal to supply all the other Middle East countries
with firearms.
In the late 1800’s, the Ottoman Empire had control of Egypt. They wanted to modernize the Egyptian army’s
firearms and in 1868, they placed a large order of Remington Rolling Block rifles. France, an ally to Egypt at the time, needed
weapons for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 so Egypt defaulted on the order,
so the firearms could be delivered to France instead. Then in the 1870’s, the order was filled for
Egypt and was used for the expansion of the Egyptian army. In 1882, a revolt was led by Ahmed Urabi,
aimed to end foreign control and establish a constitutional government. Britian stepped in to stop the rebels and
stabilize the region as they relied on the routes through the Suez Canel. The Anglo-Egyptian Treaty from 1936 gave
limited self-governance back to Egypt and reduced the British military presence
in Egypt, who later joining the United Nations in 1945, to secure its
sovereignty.
In 1948, King Farouk wanted to strengthen the military
gun power in the Egyptian Army. The King
contracted 30,000 FN49’s from Belgium. These
firearms would be paired with an 8mm Mauser cartridge but would use stripper
clips for reloading as the cartridge would often stick, which wasn’t a good
scenario for reloading during battle.
The cartridge was mainly removed for cleaning, and the wood stock had a
brass plate to hold a cleaning kit in the stock. The FN49 operates on a short stroke gas piston
operating system. The weapon has a
tilted bolt and dust cover that slides when cocked, as well as adjustments for
both elevation and wind drift. Some of
the weapons had been stamped with the King of England’s crown, however later
rifles were stamped with an eagle for the new Egyptian government.
The Egyptians weren’t too fond of the FN49’s and wanted to
produce their own weapons so in the 1950’s, Sweden sold Egypt the license and
machinery to start making the semi-automatic Hakim rifle. The word Hakim translates to “the ruler,
judge or governor” in Arabic. Originally designed by Erik Eklund, as an Ag m/42
for the Swedish Army, the Egyptians converted the design to use 8mm mouser. Its weight comes in at 10.5 lbs. and comes
with a 24.5” barrel. It operates with an
adjustable gas valve that goes back to the carrier and has a permanent muzzle brake to
help reduce the concurrent recoil.
Between 1955 through 1962, there were around 70,000 Hakims produced by
Egypt. There were also 2 types of Egyptian
training Hakims produced, one as an air gun with a skull and cross bone stamp,
made by Anschutz, as well as a 22 caliber, made by Beretta. Like the FN49, the Hakim uses a 10-round
detachable magazine designed to be loaded from the top with 5-round stripper
clips. Many of the Hakim rifles seen
combat in Yemen, as well as the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
Another variant of the Hakim is the smaller semi-automatic Rasheed
Carbine (sometimes spelled as Rashid), which resembles the Soviet SKS. With a 20.5” barrel and solid wood stock, it
weighs 9.25 lbs. unloaded. Much like the
Hakim, the Rasheed uses an adjustable gas operating system with a 10-round
cartridge, using stripper clips to reload, but it’s scaled down to use much
less powerful 7.62×39 Soviet ammunition.
The carbine has a rear ladder sight, with a "battle" position
for short-range fire, as well as increments of 100 to 1000 meters, although the
rifle only has a 300-metre effective range. The Rasheed also has an SKS-style bayonet and
an improved bolt system.
Around this time, Egypt started to become friendly with the
Soviets and began to distance themselves away from the European countries. The Hakim and Rasheed firearms were soon being
replaced with the Maadi AKM 762x39. The
Rasheed production halted after only around 8000 were produced. Some the Rasheed rifles were distributed
among the Egyptian military and police.
Later, around 2500 were imported into the U.S. for the collector’s
market.
At that time, the Soviets sent advisors and tooling to Egypt
and soon after, the same factory that produced the Hakim became a licensed
production facility for the Maadi assault rifle. The Maadi AK is an Egyptian copy of the
Russian AKM, with a gas-operated action with a long stroke piston and rotating
bolt. Most were produced with a 16-inch
barrel, although some were produced with longer barrels as well. There are semi-automatic or full-auto
configurations. It has a detachable box
magazine that holds 7.62x39mm ammo. The
stock is traditionally wooden with handguards, and the grip is a distinctive,
unique Egyptian pistol drip. The left
side of the trunnion is marked with the model, caliber and serial number. With the Russian tooling and Soviet Engineers
guiding the original Egyptian production, the Maadi is considered one of the
closest foreign-made copies of the original Russian AK47, known for a high
level of craftsmanship and making it highly sought after by collectors.
In 1952, the Egyptian Revolution began, and Egypt became a
republic on June 18, 1953, with Mohamed Naguib as the first president. By 1956, the Suez Crisis brought the British
control to an end, and Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal. Production of the Maadi AK continued until
the Russian advisors were expelled from Egypt in 1972 and in 1973, Egypt
started to get close to the U.S. again. Egypt
continued producing an AK, calling it a Military MISR Police/Export Firearm.
In 1982, 2000 Maadi firearms were imported into the U.S.
collector’s market, but imports were halted by the 1989 import ban. It wouldn’t be until 1993 through 1995, when
two companies started to import Maadi rifles again in two configurations – a
16” barrel and a 20” barrel, some, with threaded barrels, came with a thread protector (a nut) tack-welded in place. In 1997, another
company started to import the MISR AK, with the treads turned off the
barrels. In 1998, the U.S. no longer
allowed imports of high-capacity magazines and soon, imports stopped all
together, making the Egyptian AK’s very valuable to collectors.
Sources:
YouTube, MilSurpWorld, A quick history of Egyptian Military
Firearms, 2017
YouTube, TFBTV, The Egyptian Hakim Rifle, 2021
YouTube, Mishaco, Egyptian Rifles: FN49, Hakim, Rasheed and
Maadi
YouTube, ForgottenWeapons, The Rasheed: Semi-auto Battle
Carbine From Sweden, 2024
www.GunsInternational.com,
Egyptian Maadi AK-47 7.62x39mm
Wikapedia, Rasheed Carbine, Hakim Rifle
About the author:
Randy has been a decades long member of the NRA and the Civilian Marksmanship Program; he began collecting weapons in the 70's and has owned more than 500 weapons. He will be contributing his vast knowledge of surplus and collector weapons.
