38 R. Maclagan— On Harly Asiatic Fire Weapons. rjf -. 



some material like petroleum, persistent in burning, and readily laying hold 

 of, and setting fire to, objects with which it came in contact. 



In a history of the early Muhammadan occupation of Egypt, called th 

 Maurid al-latafat, where mention is made of the use of naphtha for fiery 

 missiles, in A. H. 532 (A. D. 1138), the English translator says in his note 

 " Utrum auctor noster per vocabulum Naptham significare velit composi- 

 tionem illam quam plurimi antiqui scriptores nomine Ignis Grceci comme- 

 morarunt, an nostrum Pulverem tormentorium, nescio." # As the author 

 says the missiles were fed with naphtha ( kftJJO ), there need be no doubt. 

 As elsewhere, other materials may have been added, but there is nothing to 

 indicate this. The translator, however, thinks the supposition that possibly 

 gunpowder was used, is supported both by the passage from Casiri referred 

 to by Hallam, and by another account of a still earlier date. " Et quidem 

 apud Arabas vetustissimum pulveris nitrati usum esse liquet ; refert Elma- 

 cinus, Lib. I. Hist. Sar., ' Eodem hocce anno {soil. A. H. 71, [A. D. 690]), 

 Hajaz arcta premens obsidione Meccam, manganis et mortariis, ope napth© 

 et ignis in Cabam jactis, illius tecta diruit, combussit et in cineram rede- 

 git.' '' The names applied to the engines might raise some question, but the 

 naphtha is there. And in many other instances naphtha is distinctly men- 

 tioned, by oriental and other writers, as thus used in medieval fire missiles. 

 To which, in the West, people have been accustomed to give the name of 

 Greek Fire.f 



But, on other grounds besides the mention of pulvis nitratus in some of 

 the Greek Eire compositions, it has been inferred that gunpowder was known, 

 as a source of power for propulsion as well as a pyrotechnic composition, 

 and that cannon were used, in times long anterior to those of the really 

 known and certain application of gunpowder to the purposes of modern 

 artillery. In particular, the frequent use of tubes for the discharge of the 



* Maured Attatafet, ed. J. D. Carlyle, A. M. 



f Advenit etiam legatus Kaliphae juvenis illustris, secum vehens naphtse duo onera, 

 multitudinemque naphtariorum artificum in ignibus jaculandis. (Bahd ud-dz'n, transl. by 

 Schultens, quoted by Lalanne, Eecherches sur le Feu Gregeois, p. 41, note.) Tasso (La 

 (j-erus., Lib. XII, 17) makes the magician Ismeno prepare a composition for burning the 

 war engines of the enemy, of which composition a note by one of his editors, Signor 

 Pietro Traticelli, says, " Dal miscuglio di qui parla Ismeno, dover risultarne il cosi detto 

 fuoco greco, &c." " Qnesto fuoco," he goes on to say, quoting the Military Dictionary of 

 Giuseppe Grassi, " e invenzione antichissima de' Persian!, i quali adoperavono il nafta 

 come principale ingrediente di esso." And he adds " I Saraceni lo componevano in 

 quel tempo col nafta o petrolio, che si raccoglie nelle vicinanze di Bagdad." And the 

 poet, further on (XVIII, 47), when 



Ismen prepara 

 Copia di fochi inusitata e rara, 

 says that the asphalt of the Dead Sea was used in the composition. 



