Download PDF | David Ayalon - Gunpowder and Firearms in The Mamluk Kingdom, A Challenge to a Mediaeval Society , London 1956.
170 Pages
PREFACE
THIS study is a revised chapter from a work on the Mamluk military society and army written in Hebrew, the greater part of which has not yet been published. The revision was made mainly in the summer and autumn of 1952 under a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, which enabled me to work in the British Museum, the Bodleian, the University Library, Cambridge, and the Bibliothèque Nationale.
The main subject of the study is not the technical military aspect of firearms for I am no military expert-but the historical and social aspects of these weapons and, above all, the description and analysis of the clash between the deeply rooted antagonism of a military ruling class of horse- men to firearms, on the one hand, and the steadily growing. nay, inescapable, necessity of employing them, on the other. The ultimate aim is to prove that superiority in firearms had been the main factor which enabled the Ottomans to incor- porate Western Asia and Egypt in their dominions. Purely military problems are discussed here mainly when they have a bearing on the above-mentioned aspects or when they help in clarifying and establishing vital terminology. In compiling the present study I was handicapped by two principal difficulties.
The first of these was that it had originally been planned and written as only a chapter of a book dealing with a much wider subject which, in spite of its supreme importance for Muslim history, is largely unknown not only to the general reader but also to the Orientalist. I had thus to rely, in summing up the characteristics of Mamluk society and in many other cases, on conclusions reached in other parts of my work, most of which is still in manuscript. In the case of those parts already published in learned journals and elsewhere, I have referred the reader to them. Where I have drawn extensively upon the unpublished parts, I have given a few selected source references.
The second difficulty was the extremely inadequate conditions of scientific research in Jerusalem, especially since we had been cut off from our National Library on Mount Scopus. In the comparatively short period spent in England and France in 1952 it was impossible to make an exhaustive examination of all the available Arab sources, and only part of the main books dealing with the history of firearms in Europe could be consulted. The work consists of three chapters and an Introduction. The length of the chapters, which may seem disproportionate, was entirely dictated by the material.
The Introduction, though paged in Roman numerals, is an integral part of the study. I take this opportunity to express my deepest feelin of gratitude to Professor L. A. Meyer, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who initiated me into the world of Mamlukdom and helped me through it for many years as teacher and colleague, and to Professor P. Wittek, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, for his contribution of the Appendix on Ottoman Firearms and for his guidance in the study of Muslim history.
I am also indebted, for scientific or other help, to Professor B. Lewis, of the School of Oriental and African Studies, to Professor S. D. Goitein. Professor H. J. Polotsky, Dr. U. Heyd, Dr. Y. Yadin, Mr. U. Ben Horin, M.A., of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to Professor J. C. Hurewitz, of Columbia University, New York, Dr. W. Zander, of the Friends of the Hebrew University, London, Mr. M. Michaelis, M.A., Jerusalem, and to Mr. H. R. Mallett, of the University Library, Cambridge, for his valuable assistance in the preparation of the Index. I can only record my debt to the Rockefeller Foundation, New York. by saying that without its assistance this study could not have been completed. Jerusalem, December, 1955.
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