Ismail ( ar, إسماعيل; ; died 1330) was a Muslim Iraqi counterweight mangonel expert who served the army of the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fift ...

in the conquest of the Southern Song dynasty.M. Rafiq Khan-Islam in China, p.8 In 1271, Kublai Khan dispatched envoys to obtain persons skilled in the management of mangonels rebuchetsfrom his kinsman

Abaqa Abaqa Khan (27 February 1234 – 4 April 1282, mn, Абаха/Абага хан (Khalkha Cyrillic), ( Traditional script), "paternal uncle", also transliterated Abaġa), was the second Mongol ruler (''Ilkhan'') of the Ilkhanate. The son of Hul ...

, the Ilkhan in

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. The latter sent

Al al-Din Al al-Din (, the name presumably representing Ala-ud-din, d. 1312) was a Muslim Persian counterweight mangonel (or counterweight trebuchet) expert who served in Kublai Khan’s army in the conquest of the Southern Song Dynasty. In 1271 Kublai ...

and Ismail, together with their families, by post route to

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whic ...

, where they began by building large mangonels which they erected in front of the city gates. In 1273 he served at the

Siege of Xiangyang The Battle of Xiangyang () was a protracted series of battles between the Yuan dynasty and the Southern Song dynasty from 1267 to 1273. The battle was a significant victory for the Yuan dynasty and ended a 30-year defensive campaign waged by th ...

. He surveyed the approaches, and planted a mangonel at the southeast corner. Its weight was 150 catties (over 200 lbs./440 kg) and when the machinery was discharged, the noise was said to shake heaven and earth. It broke down all before it, and pierced the ground to a depth of seven feet (2 m). Yisimayin died in 1330 and was succeeded by his son Yakoob.

References

Sources

This article incorporates material from

Herbert Giles Herbert Allen Giles (, 8 December 184513 February 1935) was a British diplomat and sinologist who was the professor of Chinese at the University of Cambridge for 35 years. Giles was educated at Charterhouse School before becoming a British ...

's ''A Chinese Biographical Dictionary'' (London: Arthur Probsthain, 1898), which is now in the public domain. Year of birth unknown 1330 deaths Yuan dynasty people Military history of the Mongol Empire {{china-mil-bio-stub