Artillery in the Era of the Crusades: Siege Warfare and the Development of Trebuchet Technology

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-90-04-34945-2
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 122, 514 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 980 g

Reihe: History of Warfare

Artillery 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.

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Autoren/Hrsg.

Fulton, Michael S.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Besondere Kriege und Kampagnen
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Frühe moderne Kriegsführung
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Militär- und Verteidigungsstrategie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Ausrüstung & Waffen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

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

Über Autor(innen)

Michael S. Fulton, Ph.D. (2016), Cardiff University, is a Visiting Scholar with the Department of History at the University of British Columbia. He has published a number of articles, including “A Ridge too Far,” Crusades 16 (2017) and “Development of Prefabricated Artillery during the Crusades,” JMMH 13 (2015).