Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and Progress — John Shaqi
Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and ProgressHime, H. W. L. (Henry William Lovett)
History
Gunpowder and Ammunition, Their Origin and Progress
Hime, H. W. L. (Henry William Lovett)
Ammunition; Gunpowder
During the second Crusade we find the Arabs making use of similar
incendiaries,[211] mixtures practically identical with that of
Æneas Tacticus, _cir._ 350 B.C., given in Table II. Shell full of
burning naphtha were used at the siege of Acre, 1189-91, in the third
Crusade;[212] and Richard of England, on his voyage thither, sank a
ship which an eye-witness had seen laded at Beyrut with ballista,
bows, arrows, and lances, and a large supply of Greek fire secured in
bottles (_ignem Græcum abundanter in phialis_),[213] a phrase which
reminds us of the 18th recipe of the _Liber Ignium_ of Marcus Græcus:
“put the mixture in a glass bottle” (_hoc in vase vitreo ponatur_). For
the sixth Crusade, we have the invaluable _Histoire du Roy Saint Loys_
of Joinville, who describes the terror excited by the incendiaries of
the Moslems, believed by all to be the work of the Powers of Darkness.
“Quant le bon chevalier Messire Gaultier mon compagnon vit ce feu, il
s’escrie et nous dist: Seigneurs, nous sommes perduz á jamais sans
nul remède. Car s’ilz bruslent nos chaz chateilz, nous sommes ars
et bruslez; et si nous laissons nos gardes, nous sommes ahontez....
Et toutes les fois que nostre bon Roy saint Loys oyoit qu’ils nous
gettoient ainsi ce feu, il se jettoit à terre, et tendoit ses mains
la face levée au ciel, et crioit à haulte voix à nostre Seigneur, et
disoit en pleurant à grans larmes: Beausire Dieu Jesuchrist, garde moy
et tout magent,” &c.[214] Yet the incendiaries which created all this
panic appear to have wounded but few and to have killed nobody!
Although no evidence is forthcoming to show that explosives were used
in Palestine during the Crusade period, there is good evidence, it
has been said, to prove that gunpowder was used by the Arabs in Spain
during the thirteenth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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