Cold and fire weapons, of the oriental type, were made in many armory and craft workshops in the Balkans from the 15th to the 19th century. However, the collection of the Military Museum is dominated by specimens from the 17th to the 19th century, while a smaller number of items arrived as war booty from the East, as a finished product. Each object is unique, and in addition to historical value, it also has great artistic value. The time in which this weapon was made and used was the time of slavery under the Ottoman Turks. Traces of material culture remain from that time - this weapon, which captivates us with its ugliness so much that we admire it, forgetting for a moment what its basic purpose is.

With cold weapons, saber and scimitar, the Ottoman Turks introduced the Balkans immediately after their conquest. Primarily out of their military needs, craft workshops sprung up near military camps and town bazaars. Travel writers have left information, which confirms the time of production on the blades, that already in 1477 there was a swordsmith's market in Sarajevo. They wrote about the jatagans made in Foca that they were more famous than those made in Constantinople. Janissaries were armed with jatagans and daggers. The jatagan was worn on the belt, as well as the dagger, which was more often hidden in the boot. At the time of purchase, the quality of the scimitars was checked in an interesting way; it is good if it could cut through a thin wet silk scarf thrown on the tip of the blade. The most expensive and the best quality are those whose handle, and usually also the cover, are made of silver, richly decorated, and are worn during celebrations.

Among the oriental cold weapons, several types of knives are kept in the collection. Two types of these knives were made in the aforementioned Balkan workshops. The first is a single-edged real knife, and the second is a so-called curved one. hanjar. The hanjar is a melee weapon of oriental origin, smaller than a scimitar, with a curved blade sharp on both sides and a T-shaped handle. The janissaries were armed with it. In the poems, the hanjar is compared to a girl's bandaged eyebrows. On one knife from this collection are written the verses of the Ottoman poet Hasan Masali, who was originally a master in making daggers: "Believe that the heavenly moon in the light of the dawn is your dagger." In the Balkans, a third type of knife, the so-called Dagger, a weapon that rarely appears as a product of local craftsmen, and was brought to these parts by the Circassians from the Caucasus in the middle of the 19th century. 

From the firearms from Europe, the Ottoman Turks adopted the flintlock ignition system from its very appearance in the 17th century. The first flintlock rifles that the Ottoman Turks produced and used were sheared rifles. It is the military rifle that remained in the janissaries' arsenal for the longest time (from the Persian word sheh-six; the hexagonal shape of the butt of this rifle). In addition to this, a specific type of flintlock rifle, called tančice or arnautka, was made in the Balkans. The very name of the veil comes from the shape of the rifle with a long, slender line, while this second name suggests the place where it first began to be made. Masters, especially silversmiths, competed in decorating all parts of both cold and firearms, applying all the craft techniques of that time (filigree, granulation, engraving, toushering and others). The motifs on the weapons are a reflection of the time in which they were created, the culture from which they arose, the habits and customs of their masters, the religion to which they belonged. Applying the expensive and complex technique of inking with gold and silver, on the blades and barrels of the weapons they left information about themselves, about the time of manufacture, as well as about the customer.

African countries have the most weapons. Out of a total of 144 specimens, 109 were collected in the thirties of the 20th century, and 35 were bought in 1951, from Janko Vertini, a collector from Ljubljana, and from Marija Bogić from Belgrade. Unfortunately, of these 109 objects, data on the method of acquisition of the majority, the most valuable, were lost during and immediately after the war. However, 49 specimens are known to have been received as a gift in 1937 from the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade and from General Dušan Stefanović, which are reliably known to be from the Congo. In 1936, a small number of objects from Africa were bought in an antique shop in Constantinople.

After the Second World War, the Military Museum received as a gift and purchased objects originating from Asia and Oceania. We keep about 50 objects from this area in the collection, collected at the beginning of the 20th century. They were made in the traditional way of processing and artistically decorating wood and stone, because metal was not known in Oceania until the arrival of the Europeans. Most of the objects were purchased after the Second World War from Marija Band from Zavidovići. It was part of the collection of her husband, Dr. Pinkas Band, from Vienna (1873-1954). Serving as ship's doctor, 1906-1907. from Hong Kong to Bangkok, as an amateur collector, he collected these items.

The most significant are the weapons from the Admiralty Islands. The inhabitants of this area used spears, rarely daggers, axes, and bows and arrows were used only for hunting. In 1961, the collection of Oceania was enriched with items belonging to Dragutin Andrejević, which were donated to us by his son Toše. While staying in Australia, this famous musicologist collected valuable items including boomerangs, return and war, shields and sneezes.