Weapons, Flight and Watches
Gun, Gunpowder, Rockets, Torpedoes, Attempts at Flight, Parachute, Pendulum and Watches
Gun and Gunpowder
Claims of the discovery of gunpowder are made by the Chinese and English but the claim of the Arab Muslims is the definite strongest. The English consider Roger Bacon to be the “Father of Gunpowder”, but Roger Bacon himself never claimed it.
Also, there is controversy surrounding this. It is thought that the German friar Berthold Schwarz handed down the discovery of gunpowder. Roger Bacon’s notes were vague and Berthold Schwarz’s notes clearly imply that he handed down the discovery to him.
The Chinese were the inventors of crude saltpetre, which can be dug up or can be scraped of cellar walls, but it cannot explode, for it has to be refined. Refined saltpetre is one of the three ingredients of refined saltpetre, charcoal and sulphur used in gunpowder, and is the strongest.
Mir Fatehullah Khan is known to be the inventor of gunpowder and the gun. Guns were being used by Arabs in 1340AD in the defence of Al-Bashur, when under siege by Franzdol. In Khans book Arab Civilization, he writes
“Gunpowder was a great invention of the Arabs, who were already using guns”.
The statement is further backed up by Mr. Scott in his well known book History of the Moorish Empire in Spain.Recently discovered texts also contain the word gunpowder, although the text doesn’t suggest that the word “gunpowder” is an explosive substance.
Some people think it might be just two words “gun” and “powder” put together although the only powder used in a gun is the explosive substance.
The Arabs worked out that crude saltpetre can be refined using potassium nitrate, and the earliest known reference to the refining of crude saltpetre appears in an Arabian text dated 1240. Therefore it is unlikely that before this date, gunpowder was discovered.
The first rocket and torpedoes to be made were by the Muslims. Using the refined saltpetre, Muslims invented incendiary devices, which terrified the opposing crusaders. By the 15th century, the Muslims had invented both rockets, and torpedoes. The rockets were called a
“self moving and combusting egg”,
whilst the torpedoes were called
“a self propelled pear shaped bomb, with a spear at the front, which impaled itself in enemy ships, then blew up.”
After crusaders saw Muslim warriors wearing dual layer shirts, the process of quilting was introduced to Europe. The quilted shirts contained straw between them, and were effective in battle and also good for insulation. This helped crusaders avoid chafing, resulting from their metal armour. Quilting soon became a cottage industry, in cold places like Britain and Holland.
Attempts on Flight and the Invention of the Parachute
Abbas Ibn Firnas was the first person to have the first and most successful flight, for that period of time.
He was born in Korah Takrna near Ronda. He lived in Cordoba, in Islamic Spain, and studied chemistry, physics, astronomy and was a poet and engineer. According to Phillip Hitti,
“Ibn Firnas was the first man in history to make a scientific attempt at flight”.
Abbas Ibn Firnas made several attempts to build a flying machine. In 852, he built a glider made of loose cloth stiffened with wooden struts. But didn’t achieve his task. The loosened cloth slowed his fall, creating the first parachute. He got off with minor injuries.
In 875AD at the age of 65, Ibn Firnas built another glider, consisting of a suit of silk and eagle feathers. Observed by a large crowd, Ibn Firnas launched himself off a mountain, and glided for a considerable length and for ten minutes, before making a landing. But that’s when it went wrong.
Because of the lack of good observation, he failed to notice that birds land on their tails, and he hadn’t equipped his flying suit with a tail. Also he didn’t have the right movements to land on a tail. Ibn Firnas got off lightly, but hurt his back. He died twelve years later, in 888AD, after an ongoing struggle with his injury.
Westerners teach their children about the Wright brothers, while people in Islamic countries tell their children about Ibn Firnas. Although his flight wasn’t powered, he was one thousand years before the Wright brothers, and also before Leonardo Da Vinci, so we consider him the first man to attempt a scientific approach to flight. In In honour of Ibn Firnas, the Libyans produced a stamp in his honour; the Iraqi’s built a statue in honour of Ibn Firnas on the way to the Ibn Firnas Airport (which is north of Baghdad. Also the Ibn Firnas crater on the moon is named after him).
Watches and Pendulum
The pendulum was invented by Ibn Yunus in the 10th century, a genius in science who lived during the time of the Fatimid monarchs of Egypt, Aziz Billah and Hakim bi-Amr-Illah. The invention of the pendulum led to the discovery of measuring time by the pendulums oscillations, on which Ibn Yunus studied and documented. Ibn Yunus’s work “Akbar al-Hakimi” was known to be the masterpiece on the subject, replacing Ptolemy’s work. It was translated by Umar Khayyam into Persian.
The pendulums use in clocks, was introduced in the 17th century, after observations made by Galileo. The invention of the watch was a great and important success and discovery. The first watch was made by Kutbi, who was a renowned watch maker of his time.
Whilst the reign of Harun al-Rashid, the use of the watch became very common. He once gave a watch to the French emperor Charlemagne. At that time, in Europe, watches were seen as novel and the object was regarded as a thing of wonder. The construction of water clocks in Islamic countries was quite common, and a European writer backed this up by saying;
“The Arabs were skilful in the construction of clepsydras and water clocks with automata,”
A variety of weight-driven, mechanical clocks were produced in Moorish Spain. Some were large and small and the designs included clocks with epicyclical and segmental gears, and even a mercury escapement.
In the well known university of Baghdad “Mustansariya”, there was a clock with a blue dial, depicting the sky, and the sun continually moved over it depicting the time. Maulana Shibli, the famous Urdu litterateur, described a watch of Damascus in the following words:
”The watch was kept in the door of a wall. It contained copper plates and twelve doors. There was an Eagle (Bat) standing in the first and the last plate. At the end of each hour, these two eagles lay down on the copper plates and hence a sound was produced to show the time. At twelve all the doors were closed. This system was being repeated continuously”
