Diversity and Evolution of War Projectiles During the Islamic Period

Subject Areas : The Journal of Islamic History and Civilisation

محمد  نورمحمدی ¹ (ندارد)
حسین  بیاتلو ² (ندارد)

Received: 2012-12-02 Accepted : 2013-02-19 Published : 2013-02-19

Keywords: ballistic, Mangonel (Mandjanik), Stone, Ghodour, Sandough, siege, Hisar, baro, Weapons, war,

Abstract :

Throughout the history of Islam, the different ways of fightingrequired the use of various weapons. During the Islamic middle ages,most cities possessed the defensive walls. Thus, the method of siegewarfare was considered as the common way in the battles. In suchbattles, heavy launching weapons, especially catapults, were veryuseful. However, the types of projectile weapons had the greatestimpact on achieving success. In catapult projectiles the stone was usedat first, but it was developed over the time. In later periods, explosiveprojectiles were invented with a significant damage that could blowthe city's barriers. In this study, after a short review on the evolutionof catapult projectiles, we shall analyze the various types of theseprojectiles and their performance