Medieval Siege Weapons (2): Byzantium, the Islamic World & India AD 476–1526 (New Vanguard)

When it came to non-gunpowder machine development, the medieval period was one of the most inventive in military history. During this era, the pre-existing military-technological traditions from the ancient worlds were brought together. Three civilisations were primarily responsible for this evolution: the Late-Roman or Byzantine Empire, the Islamic World, and latterly the Mongol ‘World Empire’. This book examines the resulting stone-throwing machines from torsion ‘energy storage’ systems, to manpowered and counterbalance sling devices, rockets and others. The medieval period was probably the most varied in military history when it came to the development of non-gunpowder military machines. This work looks at the stone throwing machines that used assorted sources of power from torsion "energy storage" systems, to manpowered sling devices. In the medieval Middle East it was widely said that 'Nimrod the King of Babylon' was the first person to construct a stone-throwing mangonel, and that the king learned the secret from the Devil himself.