1876.] R- Maclagan — On Early Asiatic Fire Weapons. 65 



Asia had a knowledge o£ gunpowder, and used fire-arms, before Europe, 

 there are plain indications that the knowledge of the most improved 

 weapons of war, both before and since the introduction of gunpowder, and 

 the skill to make and to use them, came from Europe to India and other 

 Asiatic countries. 



It has been seen above how Kublai Khan employed Western engineers 

 to construct and direct the machines he used in the siege of Siang-yang 

 in 1268. The engines used by Sultan Jalal-ud-din in his attack of the 

 fort of Rantanbhor, A. D. 1290, are called maghribihd, or Western (en- 

 gines).* In the history of part of the reign of 'Ala-ud-din Khilji, from 

 1296 to 1310 (A. H. 695 to 710), called Tarikl-i- 'Aim, the author, to 

 illustrate the great strength of the fort of Arangal, says, " if a ball from a 

 western catapult were to strike against it, it would rebound like a nut."f 

 Again, on one face of the fort, it is said the "western engines" succeeded 

 in making several breaches. J The account of the same transaction given 

 by Zia-ud-din uses this same term maglirili for the manjaniks used on both 

 sides. § 



This indefinite term Western, as applied to the mechanical war engines 

 of those days, is narrowed to Wiringilia as the designation of gunpowder 

 artillery in Babar's time. This is the term used in this account of the 

 battle of Panipat, April, 1526. || Colonel Tod, in his account of the attack 

 by Bahadur, Sultan of Gujarat, on the fort of Chitor, defended by Rani, 

 Bikramajit, A. D. 1535, (S. 1591) says, " This was the most powerful 

 effort hitherto made by the Sultans of Central India, and European artiller- 

 ists are recorded in these annals as brought to the subjugation of Cheetore. 

 The engineer is styled ' Labri Khan, of Frengari', and to his skill Bahadur 

 was indebted for the successful storm which ensued."^" It would appear 

 that the employment of Europeans in a similar capacity at a much earlier 

 period with the mechanical war engines is what is meant, in certain old 

 narratives referred to by the same author, though their employment is not 

 distinctly mentioned. He quotes from the " Sooraj Prakas" an account 

 of the preparations of the king of Kanauj for opposing an invasion 

 from beyond the Indus, in the 12th century, when " the king of Gor and 

 Irak crossed the Attok", in which it is said that the invading army had 



* TdriJch-i-Firuz-Shdhi, of Zid-ud-din Barm, Dowson's Elliot, III, 146. 



f Tdrihh-i- Aldi. Dowson, III, 80. 



X Id., Ill, 82. 



§ Tdrikh-i-Firiiz-Shdhi (Zid-ud-din) . Id. II, 202. 



| Ershine and Leyden's Memoirs of Baber, 306. Tuzak-i-Bdhari, Dowson, IV, 255. 



II Tod's Annals of Bajasthan, I, 310. 



