Gunpowder was probably invented by the Chinese as early as 850 CE. The Chinese invention of gunpowder never went much beyond its crudest form, and it was abandoned as a military weapon shortly afterwards. It reached Japan, Islam and from the Muslims to Europe in the 13th century and the Arabs improved gunpowder for military use.
In 1280, Syrian Hasan ar-Rammah wrote the Book of Fighting on Horseback and with War Engines. Here he introduced a rocket device, which he called ‘Chinese arrow.’ The first English reference to gunpowder is 1267 when philosopher Roger Bacon wrote in a way suggesting that others (Muslims) knew of it before him. A century later the Arabs used it to attack the Spanish town Baza and the next year in 1326 Florence ordered the manufacture of cannon and cannon balls. From Italy the making of gunpowder spread to other European countries, and by the 1350’s it had become an effective weapon on the battlefield.
The Muslim Ottoman Empire emerged in the 1300’s in Turkey and expanded to rule the Middle East, East Europe, the Caucasus, and North Africa. The Ottomans actively bought and made munitions, canons and rifles for their armies from Bosnia, Italy and England from the 14-16th centuries.
Muslims got the impetus to develop weapons technology from the Qur’aan which encourages the best military preparation (8:60).
Guns and Gunpowder
Muslims were at the forefront of technology when they put Islam first.
