Medieval Siege Weapons (2) - Byzantium, The Islamic World & India AD 476-1526

By the time of the Crusades in the 12th century, western Europe had reached a level of military sophistical ion such that Muslim military technicians found thai the Ifranj or westerners were now worth studying. As a result, forms of stone-throwing engines called Ifranji or 'Frankish' were added to existing Arab, Persian. Turkish, Rumi ('Roman') or Byzantine machines. Not until the 14th century, however, did western European siege technology outclass that of the Byzantines. Muslims, Indians and oilier easterners. By then the Mongols had burst upon the scene, bringing with them much of the sophisticated siege technology they had learned while conquering northern China. Bui again the How of ideas was not only in one direction, since the Chinese learned how to construct and use counter-weight trebuchets from Muslim siege engineers employed by the Mongols, Since Russia was conquered by the Mongols, it might have been expected that the Russians would emerge as experts in siege warfare. Instead. Russia's scattered and small cities meant that it was not fertile ground for advanced sieirc teclmology.
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