Muammar Gaddafi's gold plated Tariq

As promised, I want to showcase another shiny toy belonging to the late Muammar Gaddafi.
A custom gold plated Iraqi Al Qadissiya Tariq 9mm pistol.

The Tariq is named after Tariq ibn Ziyad, and the grips comes appropriately with coin medallions of the conqueror.
This pistol is a licenced copy of the Italian Beretta M1951. It uses a single stack 8 shot magazine, and is the precursor of the famous Beretta M92 series.

You can probably imagine the origins of this one, Saddam Hussein most likely gifted Gaddafi this special Tariq. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any close ups of this pistol, so no back story can be traced via its custom inscriptions.

This pistol was unearthed when the Libyan NTC fighters stormed his Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli on 23 August 2011.
Many other beautiful and unique weapons were found in his private palace compound, and I will showcase more down the road.

More info about the Tariq can be found here http://www.adamsguns.com/tariq.htm