Greek fire

Greek fire///////////////////////////// WIKIPEDIA////////////////////////////////////// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_fire//////////////////////////////////////////////// Greek fire was an incendiary weapon used by the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines typically used it in naval battles to great effect as it could continue burning while floating on water. It provided a technological advantage, and was responsible for many key Byzantine military victories, most notably the salvation of Constantinople from two Arab sieges, thus securing the Empire's survival./////////////////////////////////////////// Incendiary and flaming weapons were used in warfare for centuries prior to the invention of Greek fire. They included a number of sulphur-, petroleum- and bitumen-based mixtures.[4][5] Incendiary arrows and pots containing combustible substances were used as early as the 9th century BC by the Assyrians, and were extensively used in the Greco-Roman world as well.///////////////////////////////////////////// Greek fire proper, however, was developed in ca. 672, and is ascribed by the chronicler Theophanes to Kallinikos, an architect from Heliopolis in the former province of Phoenice, by then overrun by the Muslim conquests.[10] The accuracy and exact chronology of this account is open to question: Theophanes reports the use of fire-carrying and siphon-equipped ships by the Byzantines a couple of years before the supposed arrival of Kallinikos at Constantinople. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

First recorded inscription in Arabic 512 A.D.

First recorded inscription in Arabic 512 A.D. WIKIPEDIA Pre-Islamic Arabic inscriptions//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// The first recorded text in the Arabic alphabet was written in 512. It is a trilingual dedication in Greek, Syriac and Arabic found at Zabad in Syria. The version of the Arabic alphabet used includes only 22 letters, of which only 15 are different, being used to note 28 phonemes:-////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// "With the help of God (الاله)! Sergius, son of Amat Manaf, and Tobi, son of Imru'l-qais and Sergius, son of Sa‘d, and Sitr, and Shouraih."////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/121839 //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// This inscription was discovered in Zebed, Syria, by Wetzstein and first published by Sachau. The text covers a lintel over the door to the martyrion of St. Serge. The Arabic, though, does not translate the Greek but merely listing six names, not all of which are mentioned in Greek. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ALSO: Harran Inscription: A Pre-Islamic Arabic Inscription From 568 CE It is a Greek-Arabic bilingual inscription on the martyrium of St. John.