The Shishana or Shishane (, from Persian à ¡eà ¡, "six") was a type of musket used in the Ottoman Empire, traditionally by the Janissaries, produced by official Ottoman arsenals as well as small gunsmith guilds and shops in the Balkan territories of what is today Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia (), Macedonia, Kosovo, Bulgaria & Turkey beginning in the 16th century. It was characterized by a pentagonal or hexagonal buttstock and ball trigger . The musket design was used until the mid-19th century.
The Shishana was originally built with matchlock but by the late 16th century, the more reliable miquelet lock was introduced. This would become standard by the late 17th century. This transition was so complete that many earlier matchlock weapons were retrofitted with miquelet locks in the 17th and 18th centuries. Despite significant arms trade with Italy, the Ottomans adopted the Spanish-style "Patilla" variant of the miquelet lock, which became characteristic of the Shishana.
In the 18th century high-quality barrels were produced in central Bosnia, using quality iron ore from Bosnia and Serbia. It was produced in workshops in Ottoman Serbia since the 17th century and was notably used by the Serbian rebel army in the First Serbian Uprising.
After the disbandment of the Janissary corps in 1826, irregular forces (Bashi-Bazouks) and bandits continued using the weapon.
There exists decorated specimen held at museums all over the world. The Croatian History Museum has 54 specimen, most acquired from Bosnia following 1878.
Decoration was a paramount aspect of the Shishane. It was considered a mark of honor and status to possess a well-adorned weapon, and it is rare to find surviving examples without some form of embellishment. Common decorative techniques included extensive inlay work using materials such as ivory, brass, silver, horn, and bone set into the stock. Metal components like the barrel, lockplate, and frizzen were often engraved, with the designs sometimes filled with gold or silver wire, coral, or colored wax.
Certain styles of decoration are often speculatively attributed to specific regions (e.g., Balkan vs. Anatolian workshops), though these attributions are difficult to confirm definitively. Some surviving specimens bear inscribed dates on various components (barrel, lock plate, or under the mainspring) which aids historians and collectors in authenticating and dating them.