Description
Book SynopsisArtillery in the Era of the Crusades provides a detailed examination of the use of mechanical artillery in the Levant through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Rather than focus on a selection of sensational anecdotes, Michael S. Fulton explores the full scope of the available literary and archaeological evidence, reinterpreting the development of trebuchet technology and the ways in which it was used during this period. Among the arguments put forward, Fulton challenges the popular perception that the invention of the counterweight trebuchet was responsible for the dramatic transformation in the design of fortifications around the start of the thirteenth century. See inside the book.
Table of ContentsContents Foreword List of Illustrations Abbreviations Names Weights and Measures Regional Maps Introduction 1 Background Classical Artillery Terminological Issues Early Traction Trebuchets in the Near and Middle East Early Traction Trebuchets in Europe Appearance of the Counterweight Trebuchet 2 Mechanics Traction Counterweight The Mathematics 3 First Crusade Nicaea: 1097 Antioch: 1097-98 Ma’arrat al-Nu’man and ‘Arqa: 1098 Jerusalem: 1099 4 Twelfth Century The Opening Decades Tyre: 1124 Offensives of Zanki and John Comnenus The Second Crusade and the Ebb of Frankish Dominance Egypt: A New Frontier The Rise of Saladin Transjordan 5 Third Crusade The Hattin Campaign Indications of Range in Western Syria and Transjordan Saladin’s Conquest of Northern Palestine The First Great Siege of Acre Later Sieges of the Crusade 6 Ayyubid Period The Fifth Crusade and New Latin Terminology The Sixth Crusade and War on Cyprus Continued Infighting and New Arabic Terminology Louis IX and the Seventh Crusade The Mongols and the War of St Sabas 7 Mamluk Period Baybars’ Early Artillery Indications of Significant Power: 1271 The Sultanate of Qalawun The Second Great Siege of Acre: 1291 Plates 8 Influence of Offensive Artillery Theories Regarding the Influence of Artillery Siege Length Development, Manpower and Resources Concentricity Wall Thickness Entrances Dressing Tower Shape 9 Influence of Defensive Artillery Ground-mounted Artillery Tower-mounted Artillery Possible Ayyubid Artillery Towers Possible Frankish Artillery Towers Possible Mamluk Artillery Towers Other Interpretations Conclusion Development Employment Appendix 1: Mentions of Artillery Appendix 2: Images and Technical Treatises Appendix 3: Mathematical Scenarios Appendix 4: Reconstructed Engines Bibliography Index
