The mention of north Africa and the middle east led me to investigate the far ranging influence of the Ottoman Empire. It controlled a portion of Europe, Africa and the middle east. The empire's European boundaries weren't reorganized until the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and they didn't finally lose most all of Europe until 1912 in the first Balkan War.
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The Congress of Berlin returned to the Ottoman Empire territories that the previous treaty had given to the Principality of Bulgaria, most notably Macedonia, thus setting up a strong revanchist demand in Bulgaria that in 1912 led to the First Balkan War in which the Ottomans were defeated and lost nearly all of Europe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
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Below is a map of the entire Ottoman Empire in 1856. If the pistol does have an Ottoman connection then it could be very difficult to tell where it could have originated from anywhere within its boundaries.
http://www.ottomansouvenir.com/img/M..._1359-1856.jpg