:Fathul Mujahidin

{{Short description|Army rules}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}

{{Use Indian English|date=July 2017}}

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File:Fathul Mujahidin.jpg

File:Rocket warfare.jpg being used by Indian forces against British troops during the Second Anglo–Mysore War (1780–1784).]]

Fathul Mujahidin (Victory of the Mujahids), was written in 1783 by Zainul Abedin Shustari at the instruction of Tipu Sultan, is a work on the rules and regulations for the army describing the duties of a soldier engaged in Jihad (Holy War).{{Cite journal |last=Hosain |first=Hidayat |date=April 1940 |title=The Library of Tipu Sultan |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.91958/page/n156/mode/1up?view=theater |journal=Islamic Culture |volume=XIV |issue=2 |pages=146}} Mysore started to equip their army with rockets in the 1750s and during the Second Anglo–Mysore War (1780–1784) Tipu and his father Haider Ali used this technology against British troops.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k8CxJeFzCdQC&dq=haider+ali+rockets&pg=PA14|title=Rockets and Missiles: The Life Story of a Technology|date=October 2007|last=Van Riper|first=A. Bowdoin|page=14|publisher=JHU Press |isbn=9780801887925}} Tipu Sultan used rockets in battle with the British Army in the 1792 Siege of Srirangapatna,{{cite book

|title=The Tiger of Mysore - A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib

|last=Henty

|first=G. A. (George Alfred)

|year=1902

}} a battle at the end of the Third Anglo-Mysore War.

Tipu distributed copies of his military manual to all of his officers.{{cite journal

|title=Fathul Mujahidin in Sultan

|last=Husine

|first=Prof. M

|journal=Journal of the Tipu Sultan Research Institute and Museum

|volume=3

|year=1986

}} In the manual he defined 200 men to handle rockets within each of the Mysore [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cushoon cushoons], with 16 to 24 cushoons of infantry. The personnel handling the rockets were trained to define the launch angle to properly affect the curve at which the rocket would land. Tipu also defined in the manual a multiple rocket launcher (much like a musical organ) that would launch up to 10 rockets. Some of the rockets had blades in the front of the bamboo guiding rods, while others were designed as incendiary rockets.

Although not the first use of rockets by Mysore, the 1792 Siege of Srirangapatna reportedly began with showers of as many as 2,000 rockets fired simultaneously.{{cite book

|title=A View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with Tippoo Sultaun

|url=https://archive.org/details/pli.kerala.rare.11817

|last=Beatson

|first=Alexander

|authorlink=Alexander Beatson

|year=1800

}}

According to Stephen Oliver Fought and John F. Guilmartin, Jr. in Encyclopædia Britannica (2008):

{{quote|Hyder Ali, prince of Mysore, developed war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. Although the hammered soft iron he used was crude, the bursting strength of the container of black powder was much higher than the earlier paper construction. Thus a greater internal pressure was possible, with a resultant greater thrust of the propulsive jet. The rocket body was lashed with leather thongs to a long bamboo stick. Range was perhaps up to three-quarters of a mile (more than a kilometre). Although individually these rockets were not accurate, dispersion error became less important when large numbers were fired rapidly in mass attacks. They were particularly effective against cavalry and were hurled into the air, after lighting, or skimmed along the hard dry ground. Hyder Ali's son, Tippu Sultan, continued to develop and expand the use of rocket weapons, reportedly increasing the number of rocket troops from 1,200 to a corps of 5,000. In battles at Seringapatam in 1792 and 1799 these rockets were used with considerable effect against the British.Encyclopædia Britannica (2008), "rocket and missile"}}