Muslim Rocket Technology

[Kompromat]

Muslim Rocket Technology​

Professor Dr. Mohamed Mansour*

In the 13th century a Syrian scholar, Hassan Al-Rammah (d. 1294-1295), wrote a remarkable book on military technology, which became very famous in the west. The first documented rocket is included in the book, a model of which is exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. The author visited Washington in September 2000 where he obtained more information not only on the rocket but also on its fuel. Later, he acquired an edited copy of the book from the editor Ahmad Al-Hassan. This report depends on references (1-6).

Figure 1: This folio belongs to a section on archery in the Treatise on Armoury written for Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi (1169-1193), the celebrated founder of the Ayyubid dynasty whose control extended over Egypt and Syria from the second half of the twelfth century, by Murda ibn ‘Ali al-Tarsusi. The work discusses weapons and tactics. MS produced in Syria in the second half of the twelfth century. It is preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, MS Huntington 264. See: Saladin's treatise on Armoury. (Source).

Gunpowder

The Chinese knew gunpowder in the 11th century but did not know the right proportions to get explosions and did not achieve the necessary purification of potassium nitrate. The first Chinese book, which details the explosive proportions, was written in 1412 by Huo Lung Ching [1].

Al-Rammah's book is the first to explain the purification procedure for potassium nitrate and described many recipes for making gunpowder with the correct proportions to acheive explosion. This is necessary for the development of canons. Partington [3] says "the collection of recipes was probably taken from various sources at different times in the author's family and handed down. Such recipes are described as tested." Al-Razi, Al-Hamdany and an Arabic-Syriaque manuscript of the 10th century describe potassium nitrate. Ibn Al-Baytar describes it in 1240. The Arabic-Syriaque manuscript of the 10th century gives some recipes of gunpowder. It is assumed that these were added in the 13th century.

Figure 2: View of a siege engine from Kitab al-aniq fi al-manjaniq: written by ibn Arnbugha al-Zarda. Kach, most probably during the reign of Sultan Sha'aban. (r. 1362-1376). (Source)

The Latin book Liber Ignium of Marcus Graecus was originally written in Arabic and translated in Spain. It gives many recipes for making gunpowder, the last four of which may have been added to the book in 1280 or 1300 (6). "Did Roger Bacon derive his famous cryptic gunpowder formula in his Epistola of ca.1260 from the crusader Peter of Maricourt, some other traveller or from a wide range of reading from Arabic and alchemical books?" The references ([1]-[3]-[5]) doubt the correctness and the effectiveness of the recipe of Bacon.

The German scholar Albert Magnus obtained his information from Liber Ignium, which was originally an Arabic book as said before.

Evidence of the use of gunpowder during the crusades in Fustat, Egypt, in 1168 was found in the form of traces of potassium nitrate. Such traces were also found in 1218 during the siege of Dumyat and in the battle of Al-Mansoura in 1249 [1].

Winter [6] mentions that the Chinese may have discovered saltpeter (i.e. gunpowder), or else that discovery may have been transmitted to them by the Muslims whom they had plenty of opportunities of meeting either at home or abroad. Sarton refers to Arab-Muslim traders with China, as well as Muslim inhabitans in China. As early as 880 an estimated 120,000 Muslims, Jews and Persians lived in Canton alone.

Figure 3: Illustration from an Arabic military treatise showing the first use of explosive gunpowder and cannon. By the 15th century, when this illustration was added to an earlier training maual, Maluk military texts included early forms of gun or hand-cannon as held by the man on the right. The picture also shows rpckets and incendiary weapons using various forms of gun-powder (Library of the Orintal Institure, St petersburg). source: David Nicolle and Sam Thompson, Medieval Siege Weapons (2): Byzantium, the Islamic World and India AD 476-1256 (Northants, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2003, p. 38). See also: Transfer of Islamic Technology to The West, Part 3.

Canons and Rockets

There are four Arabic Manuscripts (Almakhzoun-manuscripts), one in St Petersburg, two in Paris and one in Istanbul, dated from the 14th century describing the first portable canon with suitable gunpowder. This description is principally the same as for modern guns. Such canons were used in the famous battle of Ain-Galout against the Mongols (1260) [1]. The Mamlouks developed the canons further during the 14th century.

In Spain, the Arabs used canons defending Seville (1248), in Granada 1319, in (Baza or Albacete) 1324, in Huescar and Martos 1325, in Alicante (1331) and in Algeziras 1342-1344. Partington [3] says: "the history of artillery in Spain is related to that of the Arabs".

Partington [3] mentions that "Arabic accounts suggest that the Arabs introduced firearms into Spain, from where they passed to Italy, going from there to France, and finally Germany".

Figure 4: A conceptual model of the floating rocket described by Hassan Al-Rammah, created by FSTC

Also reported by Partington [3]: "Hassan Al-Rammah describes various kinds of incendiary arrows and lances and describes and illustrates what has been supposed to be a torpedo. This is called 'the egg which moves itself and burns'. The illustration and text suggest at least that it was intended to move on the surface of water. Two sheet iron pans were fastened together and made tight by felt; the flattened pear-shaped vessel was filled with "naphtha", metal filings, and good mixtures (probably containing saltpetre), and the apparatus was provided with two rods (as a rudder?) and propelled by a large rocket".

Ley [4] said: "Hassan Al-Rammah adds one unsuspected novelty: a rocket-propelled torpedo consisting of two flat pans, fastened together and filled with powder or an incendiary mixture, equipped with a kind of tail to insure movement in a straight line, and propelled by to large rockets. The whole was called the ‘self-moving and combusting moving and combusting egg', but no instances of its use are related".

According to Winter [6], "the Arabs, in any event, appear to have been the first to inherit (and possibly originate) the secret of the rocket, and it was through Arabic writings - rather than the Mongols- that Europe came to know the rocket. Two notable examples of Arabic knowledge of the rocket are the so-called "self-moving and combusting egg" of the Syrian Al-Hassan Al-Rammah (d. 1294-1295), details of which may be found in Ley's popular Rockets, Missiles and Space Travel and physician Yusuf ibn Ismail Al-Kutub's description (1311) of saltpeter ("they use it to make a fire which rises and moves, thus increasing it in lightness and inflammability")".

Figure 5: Dardanelles Gun. Very heavy 15th-C bronze muzzle-loading cannon of the type used by the Ottomans in siege of Constantinople in 1453, showing ornate decoration. See Great Turkish Bombard. (Source). For more information, see Dr Salim Ayduz, The Cannon of Mehmed II .

References

[1] Kitab Al-Furusiyya wa Al-Manasib Al-Harbiyya (Book of Military Horsemanship and Ingenious War Devices) by Najm Al-Din Hassan Al-Rammah (1280), edited by Ahmad Yusuf Al-Hassan, University of Aleppo publications, 1998.

[2] Ahmad Y. Al-Hassan and Donald R.Hill, Islamic Technology, Cambridge University Press and Unesco, 1986.

[3] J. R. Partington, A history of Greek Fire and Gunpowder, The John Hopkins University Press, 1999.

[4] Willey Ley, Rockets, Missiles, and Space Travel, The Viking Press, 1958.

[5] Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, Cambridge University Press, 1960.

[6] Frank H.Winter, "The Genesis of the Rocket in China and its Spread to the East and West", Proceedings of the 13th History Symposium of the American Academy of Astronautics (Munich, September 1979), published by the American Astronautical Society, 1990.

* Professor Dr. Mohamed Mansour was Emeritus Professor of Control Engineering at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland from September 1968 until September 1993. His fields of interest are control systems, especially stability theory and digital control, stability of power systems, and digital filters. He has published about 200 scientific papers, edited 6 books and supervised 47 Ph.D Students. See Prof. Dr.Mohamed Mansour: Publications and Curriculum Vitae; Mansour, Mohamed and Prof. Dr. Mohamed Mansour.

by: Professor Dr. Mohamed Mansour , Fri 22 March, 2002

MuslimHeritage.com - Topics

 

[Asian.Century]

Excellent development by Muslims of 10th, 11th & 13th century. The first pioneers of inventing rockets, gunpowder, firearms, engines, torpedoes and cannons. Infact rocket fuel was developed by Muslims & yet under the name of universal developments Muslims show shyness.

Wat is really sad..is that copiers, cheats and clever manipulator countries like Britain (only 500-600) in existence claim industrial revolutionist in olympics opening cermony. Y these double-standards into misleading world populace. Why ???

 

[Asian.Century]

MuslimHeritage.com - Discover 1000 Years of Missing History

 

[livingdead]

Excellent development by Muslims of 10th, 11th & 13th century. The first pioneers of inventing rockets, gunpowder, firearms, engines, torpedoes and cannons. Infact rocket fuel was developed by Muslims & yet under the name of universal developments Muslims show shyness.

Wat is really sad..is that copiers, cheats and clever manipulator countries like Britain (only 500-600) in existence claim industrial revolutionist in olympics opening cermony. Y these double-standards into misleading world populace. Why ???

Industrial revolution happened much later, muslims could have capitalized on their inventions and heralded the revolution in 13th century. They did not.
BTW important invention during industrial revolution were spinning machine, railways engine and printing machine, not some rockets.

 

[Amolthebest]

Tipu Sultan had some rocket like weapon against Brits. Anybody have more info ?

 

[CanadianIndian]

Tipu Sultan had some rocket like weapon against Brits. Anybody have more info ?

Mysorean rockets - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tipu Sultan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[AtillaHun]

Scholars often use the term gunpowder empires to describe the empires of the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal. Each of these three empires had considerable military exploits using the newly-developed firearms, especially cannon and small arms, to create their empires.[2] They existed primarily between the fourteenth and the late seventeenth centuries.

Ottoman weapons and cannons - ( Ottomans were one of the first to use gunpowder and firearms in mass numbers, nearly all of the janissaries were equipped with muskets before others . Medieval 2 total war the turks are one of the best factions which uses gunpowder before anyone

Ottoman volley gun

 

[Kompromat]

Lagâri Hasan Çelebis rocket flight depicted in a 17th-century engraving

 

[Asian.Century]

Muslim World’s First Rocket Scientist
February 18th, 2014 | by MuslimScience

In This Issue
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By Dr. Athar Osama

On 12 April 1961, Russia’s Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit around the earth in Space. Soon after, United States launched its own quest to conquer space. Kennedy’s vow to send a man to the moon before the end of the 1960s, unleashed an unprecedented race to gain and demonstrate scientific knowledge and technological knowledge between the two super powers.

Soon enough, American Neil Armstrong took the ‘one small step for a man,’ that became ‘a giant leap for mankind’ and rest, as they say, is history. The 1970s became a decade, when man dreamt of venturing farther and farther, into the exciting corners of the galaxy and creating colonies on other planets.

Somewhere within this hugely exciting period of human history, another man was dreaming, what other men in his part of the world, had not dreamt before. While his step was not the first for mankind, it was nonetheless, a brave and audacious attempt, to achieve what was believed not to be possible, within the developing world at the time and certainly, not within the even lesser developed Islamic World.

On November 1972, Pakistan became the first country in the Islamic World – and possibly in the entire Developing World – to fire a rocket into space from its launching pad near the Arabian Ocean. Tariq Mustafa – the person behind this project – thus became Muslim World’s first Rocket Scientist.

Tariq Mustafa’s personal journey to achieve this impressive feat, begins in a rather unassuming way, even though, one can sometimes see the early signs of remarkable things to come. His demeanor also belies the man towering status, as one of the pioneers of space and ballistics technology, in the modern day Islamic World.





Tariq Mustafa at the first post graduate International Reactor School of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell, near Oxford- 1957

Tariq Mustafa is the most humble of all people, dressed simply and so welcoming. His childhood life is like all our childhood experiences, where ambitions are high and dreams are fuelled with a can-do attitude. Tariq Musafa remembers growing up thinking, that he must do something to bridge the ‘technology deficit’ faced by his country, in particular, and the Muslim World, in general. And this is where resemblance with the ‘ordinary,’ ends and life, takes a serious and meaningful turn.

A remarkable set of coincidences and an unusual choice of studies, made him the right man at the right time and place. “It was in my third year in chemical technology, when the opportunity came,” recalls Mr. Mustafa. ”An advertisement appeared in the papers, that the Pakistan Ordinance Factories were looking for young people with first class academic credentials, to be sent to the Royal Arsenal in the United Kingdom for training and, the thing that attracted my attention was, that the brighter ones would be allowed to follow a course in Mechanical Engineering at the London University.” His parents did not initially approve of his choice but God has his ways of leading people to their destinations, it seems, and this was made for Tariq Mustafa. Seeing that his mind was made up, his parents relented and the young Mustafa ended up in a five year engineering apprenticeship at the Royal Arsenal. The apprenticeship honed his innate capabilities and ambitions to a large extent, as it not only involved theory but also practice, a combination of which Mr. Mustafa thinks is the best preparation for those who want to enter the field of science.

Having finished his engineering degree, another simple twist of fate enabled him, to transition closer to where he was meant to be. In 1956, the newly formed Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission advertised in the Embassy’s newsletter, to undertake a course in nuclear engineering. These were the heady days of Pakistan’s foray into nuclear technology and talented Pakistanis from across the world, were being sourced into this Programme.

From a reactors course in the United Kingdom, to a prestigious fellowship at the Oakridge National Laboratory in the United States, Tariq’s multifaceted training and career in mechanical engineering, nuclear science and technology, and propulsion systems provided him with just the right kind of training, to benefit from the challenge and the opportunity that was to come. It came quite soon.

One day, while working at Oakridge National Laboratory, he got a call from Dr Salam – by then not yet a Nobel Laureate but still a Presidential Science Advisor, one of the Founders of Pakistan’s Atomic Energy and Space Research Commissions and a scientist of international repute – with the following message:

“Tariq, I can’t explain, but you have to be here in Washington tomorrow morning. You can hitchhike, walk, run, do whatever you want to do but, you have to be here.” Following instructions, Mr. Mustafa immediately departed on what was to become his career defining moment. Upon reaching Washington, Mr. Mustafa accompanied Dr. Salam to NASA to meet with Dr. Fredkin – the Director of International Affairs. A golden opportunity had presented itself. NASA was looking for a rocket launching facility in the Arabian Ocean, from where it could fire rockets to collect some atmospheric data. Pakistan could host this facility and President Ayub was in Washington to do the deal. Fredkin gave young Mustafa 24 hours to visit NASA’s rocket range and prepare a report that would be presented to the President for approval. The next 24 hours would decide be critical, to achieving the stuff of dreams and bring Tariq Mustafa to the forefront of this enormous undertaking. Needless to say, the report was written and approved and hence began this fascinating and eventful journey.

In the next few months, Dr. Mustafa and his colleagues absorbed themselves in executing the experiment which required data collection to be done through a sodium vapour experiment. The experiment required that the mission of building the facility and launching the rocket, be completed within a very specific window of opportunity. Even though the work was completed in a record time of 9 months, the overall task hit a snag, as clouds hovered over the launch site, as the day of the launch approached. The success of the experiment, depended upon precise measurement of the sodium vapor cloud, released by the rocket, by several observation positions in the vicinity. And they all had to take visual readings at precisely the same point in time.

Despite the weather warnings, the team responsible for the launch decided to go ahead and history was made. Though the experiment wasn’t a complete success, luck favored the brave and the results were good enough to make NASA happy with the outcome. This taught Pakistanis a lot about rocket technology and they decided that it was time Pakistan had its own rocket building capability. Thereon, several smaller experiments were done in an effort to comprehend the mechanics of rocket science and become fluent in developing as well as managing such a technology within Pakistan.

Tariq Mustafa believes this initial learning was critical to developing bigger and better things in the future. “Technology development and absorption does not happen overnight. As you must learn to walk before you can run, so must technological capacity building pass through several stages before a country can develop its own, like Pakistan did with its rocket programme in the 1970s.”

Tariq Mustafa and his team of rocket scientists went on to do many great things. Pakistan Army was facing a dilemma with the relatively short range of their 120 mm cannons and were afraid they would be outgunned by India’s superior technology. Tariq’s team helped use the learning gained through the rocket programme, to create the country’s ground-to-ground rocket programme.

Reminiscing over the past, takes Dr. Mustafa into an ethereal dreamy state and a sudden whiff of reality makes him utterly disappointed at the present state of things. He believes that the reason we have lost out on technological and scientific advances, is because we have decreased our ability ‘to mate with other countries’. He takes a short break, sighs a little and then utters, “I think Islamic countries have made a lot of effort. Egypt is one. Iran another one and then Turkey. But I think, in Pakistan, that connection with the East and the West, was unique and it helped us acquire and indigenize technology.. I think this was the right strategy, that you develop the ability to interact with others. It gives you access to different technologies and the opportunities to learn.”

“We need to build bridges, if we are to develop the capability to reclaim our shared heritage of science and technology,” is the one line piece of advice from the Muslim World’s first rocket scientist. This may not be a bad advice at all, given that most centers of learning and wisdom in the ancient Islamic World – in Baghdad, Cordoba, Istanbul, and Bukhara – flourished where the interactions with other civilizations were the highest.



Following in his illustrious footsteps can once again, position the Muslim World at the front and center of science and technology, in the twenty-first century.

 

[Asian.Century]

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