@article{TEXTUAL,
      recid = {2125},
      author = {Vanni Desideri, Andrea},
      title = {Notes on Two Manjanīq Counterweights from Mamluk Shawbak},
      publisher = {The Middle East Documentation Center (MEDOC)},
      journal = {Mamlūk Studies Review},
      address = {2019},
      number = {TEXTUAL},
      abstract = {The castle of al-Shawbak is located in Jordan. New  research in the area, under the University of Florence’s  archaeological mission “‘Medieval’ Petra: Archaeology of  the Crusader-Ayyubid Settlement in Transjordan” shows that  the Crusader installation was preceded by a Late  Roman-Byzantine fortified settlement. After its fall into  Muslim hands in 1189 the regional political importance of  the castle was strengthened under the Ayyubids, who added  monumental and productive buildings. In the 1990s the  Department of Antiquities of Jordan undertook a clearance  campaign in the area of the major monumental buildings in  the northeastern part of the castle. During this work a  quantity of stone elements was unearthed. Among epigraphic  fragments, decorative architectural elements, millstones,  and many spherical stone projectiles of various diameters,  a particular element carved into a limestone block was  recognized. Around 2000-2002 the Ministry of Energy and  Mineral Resources completed a new clearance campaign for  consolidation works in the southern part of the castle and  a second element of the same kind came to light. If we  consider the two specimens from al-Shawbak, although the  archaeological context has been lost and a preliminary  search for published archaeological comparisons did not  succeed, their apparent similarity with drawings of  counterweight artillery guided our research attempting to  specify the type of engine to which the artifacts belonged,  and to propose a reconstruction of the coupling system and  of their chronology, starting from a concise review of Arab  military treatises and related iconography. The hurling  engines to which the elements most probably belonged are  indicated by the Arabic terms ʿarrādah and manjanīq.},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/2125},
}