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Gunpowder, a mixture of saltpetre, sulphur and charcoal, was discovered in China in the 9th century by alchemists searching for an elixir of long life. Its Chinese name, huoyao, still means “fire medicine”. Carried west over the following centuries, it changed warfare across the world.

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The first confirmed recipes appear in Taoist alchemy books of the Tang dynasty: one dated 808, and another from about 50 years later, the Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe, which warns that people who heated saltpetre and sulphur with honey had burnt their hands and faces, and even their whole house. Saltpetre (potassium nitrate) releases oxygen when heated, which is why the mixture burns so fiercely. Chinese armies used it in fire arrows and bombs, and the military handbook Wujing Zongyao, finished in 1044, gives the earliest written formulas for military use. By the 12th century soldiers carried “fire lances”, tubes that shot flames and later bullets. Gunpowder reached the Islamic world and Europe in the 13th century; the English friar Roger Bacon described it in 1267. In 1453 the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II used huge cannons to breach the walls of Constantinople.

Türkçe oku
Barut 9. yüzyılda Çin'de, uzun ömür iksiri arayan simyacıların elinde ortaya çıktı. Güherçile, kükürt ve odun kömüründen oluşan bu karışımın Çince adı huoyao bugün de “ateş ilacı” demektir. Sonraki yüzyıllarda batıya yayılan barut, dünyanın her yerinde savaşı değiştirdi.

Barutun kesin olarak bilinen ilk tarifleri, Tang hanedanı dönemindeki Taocu simya kitaplarında geçer. Bunlardan biri 808 tarihlidir. Yaklaşık 50 yıl sonra yazılan Zhenyuan miaodao yaolüe ise güherçileyle kükürdü balla birlikte ısıtanların ellerini, yüzlerini, hatta bütün evlerini yaktığını anlatarak okuru uyarır. Güherçile (potasyum nitrat) ısınınca oksijen açığa çıkarır; karışımın bu kadar hızlı yanması bundandır. Çin orduları barutu ateşli oklarda ve bombalarda kullandı; askerî kullanım için bilinen en eski yazılı tarifler de 1044'te tamamlanan Wujing Zongyao adlı savaş el kitabındadır. 12. yüzyılda askerler, önce alev, sonra mermi fırlatan “ateş mızrakları” taşıyordu. Barut 13. yüzyılda İslam dünyasına ve Avrupa'ya ulaştı; İngiliz rahip ve bilgin Roger Bacon onu 1267'de anlattı. 1453'te de Fatih Sultan Mehmed, İstanbul'u kuşatırken surları dev toplarla dövdü.

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