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An early and rudimentary Chinese hand gun, perhaps 13th century. The iron barrel was presumably secured in some kind of wooden mount that has since decayed away.
Born in Toledo, Spain, Alfonso was the eldest son of Ferdinand III of Castile and Elisabeth of Hohenstaufen, known in Spain as Beatriz de Suabia, through whom he was a cousin of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor. In the period 1240–1250 he conquered several Muslim strongholds in Al-Andalus alongside his father, such as Murcia, Alicante and Cadiz. In the siege of Niebla (1262) he used cannon to defeat the Muslim defenders. This is the first recorded use of gunpowder for military purposes by Europeans - ironically a technqiue learned from his Muslim opponents.
A 14th century illustration of a Chinese cannon, or eruptor, which fired proto-shells as cast iron bombs. This illustration was featured in the 14th century military treatise of the Huolongjing, edited and compiled by Liu Ji and Jiao Yu, with the preface added in 1412. This specific cannon was called the "flying-cloud thunderclap eruptor" (feiyun pilipao).
This manuscript was copied for Jarbash al-Silahdar al-Maliki al-Ashrafi, a Mamluk officer in charge of troop training. It includes instruction on military training, firearms, incendiary devices, artillery, signaling and horsemanship. The Mamluks were soldiers of slave origin that existed in the Middle East from the 9th to the 19th century. They were particularly powerful in Egypt and Syria in a period known as the Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517), which famously beat back the Mongols and fought the Crusaders.
Walter de Milemete was an English scholar who wrote a treatise on Kingship for the young prince Edward, later king Edward III of England, called 'De nobilitatibus, sapientiis, et prudentiis regum' (1326). The Treatise includes images of siege weapons and what is probably the first illustration of a firearm: a pot-de-fer ('iron pot'). One of the marginal border illustrations in the Milemete Treatise shows a soldier firing a large vase-shaped cannon, the arrow-shaped projectile is seen projecting from the canon which is pointed at a fortification.
First illustration of Fire Lance And a Grenade, 10th Century, Dunhuang. Detail from an illustration of Sakyamuni's temptation by Mara, with the demons at upper right threatening with the fire lance and other weapons while those at lower right tempt with women.