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  Cannons have been booming in the theater of wars for over 600 years since they were first invented. According to experts researching into the origin of cannons, it is believed that the Arabs had a workable cannon - the Madfaa - invented by the Arab engineers in Spain the year 1250 CE. The Madfaa consisted of a wooden bowl packed tightly with gunpowder. The first show of firearms in Western Europe was by the Moors at Saragossa (a city in northeast Spain) in 1118 CE. The Moors also brought the original cannon, the Arabian Madfaa, to the Western civilization. This was a small mortar-like weapon made of wood. The projectile rested on the muzzle end until firing of the charge tossed it in the general direction of the enemy.

  Others credit the Chinese with inventing the first cannon around 1300 CE. Their device fired wooden arrows from metal tubes filled with gunpowder. Still other people insist that the honor of inventing the first canon should go to the German alchemist Berthold Schwartz. One day in 1320 CE, so the story goes, Schwartz accidentally mixed the three main ingredients of gunpowder in a mortar and covered them with a stone slab. Later, a stray spark ignited the powder and threw the slab skyward, right through Schwartz's laboratory! 

  The discovery of the early cannons deserves little praise, for the weapon proved useless in making its mark in the battlefield, except scaring the horses of the enemy cavalry brigades with its loud noise from mounting an organized attack. Along with the Arabs, the French also started using canons in the battles. Their version, called a pot de fer, was a strange machine. It started out shaped like a bottle, firing an iron bolt with a triangular head. As improvements were made, the bottle shape was straightened into the shape of cylindrical tube, which was fastened to a platform with wheels to give the cannon more mobility. But, it did nothing to improve the weapon's effectiveness, for it only fired a small projectile that could do little damage to the enemy.

  However, the first recorded use of cannons in the battlefield is recorded after the Turks captured power from the caliphs who ruled Baghdad. Khalifa al-Mu'tasim, the ruler of Baghdad had raised a corps of Turkish soldiers who were excellent fighters. So, Mu'tasim built a new capital at Samarra and had them stationed over there. First used as mercenary soldiers they soon seized power in the Khalifate. By 1100, although the Khalif still reigned in Baghdad, the real power was wielded by the Turkish Sultans.

  The Turks excelled in martial virtues. Even their foes, the Crusaders, found them brave, chivalrous and at times honest. But they had the defects of their virtues. They had little interest in scientific and technical matters. The only technical field in which the Turks showed a progressive spirit was that of warfare. In this art they led the world for a couple of centuries. In the fifteenth century when European armies still relied upon armored knights, clattering about on plow horses, the Turkish armies included companies of musketeers, clad in uniforms, marching in step, and firing by volleys. 

  Nonetheless, it wasn't until the April of 1453 that the cannon finally came into its own at the Battle of Constantinople, now known as Istanbul. The Turks wanted to capture the city, which was a Christian stronghold, but the people of Constantinople felt safe, and for good reason. Constantinople was the greatest fortress of the age, protected by thirteen miles of walls. As the siege began, the Turks wheeled in their artillery - sixty-eight cannons - to the walls. Sultan Muhammad II led the siege of Constantinople with the world's most powerful artillery that included a 26-foot long cannon weighing 20 tons and fired a 1200-pound cannonball. This super cannon took 200 men to operate it!

  For fifty days, the Turks bombarded the fort of Constantinople with their cannon fire. The cannonballs ripped scattered holes in their walls. But no sooner would a hole appear, than the soldiers inside would rush to repair it and rebuild the wall. After nearly two months of fighting, a wide gap was broken in one of the wall, which was too wide to be repaired quickly. This permitted twelve thousand Turkish troops to rush through it. Within hours, the great Constantinople was a captured city. The Turks were so proud of their cannons that they put them on permanent display in the conquered city.

  The Turks’ supremacy in the use of cannons enabled them to conquer most of the Balkan Peninsula and twice besiege Vienna, until the Europeans caught up with them in the technique of perfecting their artillery power. On the other side, the Turks extended their control over different parts of Central Asia.

  The Mughal Empire was founded  by Babar, who ruled Kabul. He defeated the vast but ill-organized army of Ibrahim Lodi on 21st of April 1526, with the help of small and big firearms, and the terrible new weapon he had brought with him - the cannon. The success of Babar's well-served artillery in the field of Panipat must have made cannons indispensable machines of warfare and cannons came into general use in Muslim India.

  Three years after the battle of Panipat, Babar controlled the entire northern India and extended his dominions up to Bengal. His army soon came in collision with the forces of Bengal, which had been a stronghold of the Pathans and the Afghans for more than a century before him.

  One of the most famous cannons is the huge Malik-e-Maidan (The Lord of the Battlefield) in Bijapur in South India. It is a cannon, cast of brass in 1549 CE by Muhammad bin Hasan al-Rumi, a Turkish officer, in the employ of the King of Ahmadnagar.  It is measuring 14 feet and four inches in length and a diameter of 4 feet and 11 inches and its estimated weight is about 55 tons. The outside surface of the cannon is dark green and is polished like glass and adorned with inscriptions in Persian and Arabic beautifully cut in relief. When the fort of Parandah of Ahmadnagar, where this cannon was installed fell into the hands of Bijapur, it was set up as a trophy of war in its present position in 1632, with the help of ten elephants, 400 oxen and the exertion of numerous men. It is a cast piece of an alloy of copper, iron and tin and when struck, sounds like a bell.

  The longest cannon in Bijapur is the Lambachhari (The Far-flier), which measures 30 feet and 7 inches length. The diameter at the breech is 3 feet 2 inches. Another cannon close to it measures 19 feet and 10 inches in length with a bore of 8 inches. All these cannons, except the Malik-e-Maidan are made up of iron. They were made, by placing together long horizontal bars of square sections round a core, while hot iron rings were slipped over these bars forming a loose barrel, which on cooling made the barrel tight. A succession of these rings welded into one another formed an outer layer of the barrel.

  The only other cannon that was comparable to the huge cannons of Bijapur was the now-lost cannon of Dhaka, present day Bangladesh. It was made like the the Bijapur cannons from fourteen bars of iron and was 22 feet and 10 ½ inches in length. The diameter of the breech was 3 feet and 3 inches and weighed 25 tons. Unfortunately, the riverbank on which it stood was undermined by a river-current, and it fell into the river and was lost.

  The Kalu Jhamjham at Dhaka is 11 feet in length. The diameter at its breech is 2 feet 3 inches, and that of the bore is only 6 inches. This cannon is traditionally believed to have fashioned by one Kalu Kamar who is also famed to have created the immense cannon of Dhaka that sank into the river. The latter was named as Maryam after the name of Kalu's wife, while Kalu Jhamjham still carries the name of its maker. Maryam, the cannon, is believed to have been double the size of Kalu Jhamjham. However, Kalu Jhamjham is equally famous throughout Bangladesh, and the visitors to Dhaka do not consider all sights seen until they have feasted their eyes on this wonderful piece of artillery on the riverbank at Sardarghat.

  Constantinople was again at war in 1807, this time with the British. The British fleet launched their attack on Constantinople from the sea. In their hour of need, the Turks had to once again turn to the weapons that had brought them victory 354 years earlier. The cannons were brought down from their places of display and were quickly reloaded, and the order was given to fire them. Two 700-pound cannonballs found their mark, seriously damaging two British ships and killing 70 sailors on board. The weapons from the past had come in handy for the Turks to deal a deadly blow to the threat that faced them in the present!

  Eventually peace returned, and sixty years later the Turks were on better terms with the British. As a gift of friendship, Sultan Abdul Aziz gave England's Queen Victoria one of the cannons that had fired on her soldiers. This 17-ton cannon was renamed as "Dardanelle's Gun," and was put on exhibit at the famous Tower of London, where visitors from all over the world can still see it to this day.

  During the centuries following their introduction, the varieties of cannon shapes and sizes multiplied. The machines, however, remained cumbersome with little mobility and were most effective as siege weapons. Cannons of the 16th and 17th centuries were cast of bronze. During the early part of the 17th century King Gustavas Adolphus introduced the mobile field cannons that were capable of firing lightweight projectiles. Until 1888, the largest cannon in use was the 119-ton Krupp made in 1884 for Italy, but in 1888-90 the same house produced a 135-ton cannon for Cronstadt Island. The heaviest British cannon at that time was the 111-ton in weight, which was capable of throwing a projectile of 1800 pounds with a muzzle velocity of 2216 feet per second.

  Soon, the cannons were fitted into ships and became an indispensable tool of naval warfare. Later, the use of huge cannons was done away in favor of lighter guns with quick firing speeds. With increased mobility, cannons began to be used more effectively in battle against men and horses with deadly effect. In the 19th century explosive shells replaced cannonballs. By World War I, the varieties of cannons included howitzers and mortars. During World War II, the use of tank mounted cannons increased, and postwar developments have resulted in the inventions of self-propelled cannons and new varieties of special use guns, such as the cannons designed to launch rockets and atomic weapons.