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Mongol Siege Warfare on the Banks of the Euphrates and the Question of Gunpowder (1260–1312)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

Kate Raphael
Kate Raphael*
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Abstract

This article discusses the Mongol approach to warfare, then goes on to consider the Mongols' conversion to the notion that they would have to develop a siege train, since walled cities cannot easily be taken by a cavalry charge. The contribution of Chinese siege engineers is discussed, and there is a survey of Chinese siege techniques as they evolved before the Mongol period. The author considers the evidence for the use of inflammable materials, and then moves to the question of gunpowder. The widespread (not quite universal) consensus that the Chinese used gunpowder is discussed, and then attention moves to Hulegu's expedition to western Asia in the 1250s. It is pointed out that none of the major sources seems to imply the use of anything that might be construed as gunpowder technology during those campaigns. Lastly, the author considers, in some detail, sieges conducted by the Ilkhanid Mongols against Mamluk border strongholds during the succeeding decades, drawing attention to and explaining those sieges' increasing lack of success.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 355 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2009

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Footnotes

1

I would like to thank both Professor Amitai and Professor Michal Biran from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who read earlier drafts of this paper. I would also like to than Mr Shai Amisar for his help and explanations on the different chemical compositions of gunpowder throughout history.

References

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38 Allsen, “Military Technology”, pp. 275, 279, Allsen relies on the Yuanshi, chap. 98, p. 2514, and on Hsiao, Yuan Dynasty, p. 80.

39 Franke, Krieg und Krieger, p. 213.

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43 I would like to thank Prof. Shaul Shaked of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for translating the Persian sources and Prof. Michal Biran of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Department of Asian Studies and Middle Eastern History for translating and analysing the Chinese source.

44 Yuanshi, Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1978. ch. 98, p. 2514.

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47 Franke, “Siege and Defense”, p. 193; Knapp, Walled Cities, pp. 15–26. See especially p. 20.

48 Knapp, Walled Cities, p. 4.

49 Martin, Rise of Chingis Khan, p. 31.

50 Martinez, “Army”, pp. 148–149, pp. 99–116.

51 Rashid al-Din, Jami al-tawarikh (Thackston) II, pp. 507–508. In the case of Mayyafarqin and Mardin.

52 Ibid., II, p. 484.

53 Ibid., II, pp. 507–508.

54 Ibid., II, p. 481.

55 Jarga was a hunting method in which riders surrounded an animal and slowly decreased the diameter of the circle until the animal was caught and killed. Ibid., III, p. 768.

56 Wassaf in B. Spuler, A History of the Mongols: Based on Eastern and Western Accounts of the Thirteenth & Fourteenth Centuries. Trans. from German by H. and S. Drummond (London, 1972), Geschichte Wassafs. ed. and trans. by Josef von Hammer-Purgstall (Vienna, 1856), I, pp. 68–75.

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58 While Baghdad was of great significance due to its place in the Muslim world and the fact that it was the seat of the Caliph, its geographical location was also of considerable importance because of the winter pasture that served the Ilkhanid army. Thus, the city was restored at the order of the Mongols. We have no evidence of restoration of the Assassins's fortifications by the Mongols. They seem to have been left in ruins or destroyed immediately after a siege.

59 Rashid al-Din, Jami al-tawarikh (Thackston), II, pp. 507–509; Patton, D., Badr al-Din Lulu, Atabeg of Mosul, 1211–1259 (Seattle, 1991), p. 63Google Scholar.

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68 Ibn Abd al-Zahir, Rawd, pp. 405–408; A short version is found in Baybars al-Mansuri, Tarikh, p. 55. Wassaf says the Mongol force was twice the size of the Mamluk army. Thorau, Lion, p. 223.

69 Yunini, Dhayl, III, p. 114; Ibn Shaddad, Tarikh, pp. 124–126; Ibn al-Furat, Tarikh, VII, p. 41; Although Baybars was residing at Damascus when he received the news (November 1275) of the Mongol attack he did not manage to get to the fortress.

70 Yunini, Dhayl, III, p.115; Thorau, Lion, p. 236; Amitai-Preiss, Mongols, pp. 136–137.

71 Ibn Abd al-Zahir, Tashrif, 76–77; Yunini, Dhayl, IV, pp. 45–46; L. S. Northup, From Slave to Sultan: The career of Al-Mansur Qalawun and the Consolidation of Mamluk Rule in Egypt and Syria (678–689 A.H/1279–1290 A.D) (Wiesbaden, 1998), pp. 101–102.

72 Yunini, Dhayl, IV, pp. 90–91.

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77 Maqrizi, Suluk, I:iii, pp. 906–908; Al-Nuwayri, Nihayat, 31, pp. 413–414; Yunini, Dhayl (Guo), I, pp. 108; Rashid al-Din, Jami al-tawarikh (Thackston),III, p. 641; Abul-Fida, The Memories of a Syrian Prince; Abul-Fida, Sultan of Hama 672–732 (1273–1331), Translated P. M. Holt (Wiesbaden, 1983), p. 38.

78 Ibn Taghribirdi, Nujum, 32, pp. 24–25; Maqrizi, Suluk, I:iii, pp 928–933.

It took the army 48 days to march from al-Hila to al-Bira.

79 Rashid al-Din, Jami al-tawarikh (Thackston), III, p. 655; Al-Nuwayri, Nihayat, 32, pp. 24–25.

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82 Boyle, Iran, p. 403.

83 Ibid. p. 62; Maqrizi, Suluk, II:i, p. 115.

84 Abul-Fida, Syrian Prince (Holt), p. 62.; Boyle, Iran, p. 403; R. Amitai-Preiss, “New Material from the Mamluk Sources for the Biography of Rashid al-Din”, in The Court of the Il-khans 1290–1340, eds. J. Raby and T. Fitzherbert (Oxford, 1994), (Oxford Studies in Islamic Art XII), pp. 29–31.