химия и жизнь

The full range of equipment and projectiles already existed by the 1590s, including poison gas shells (used in the Netherlands and which contained various noxious substances intended to asphyxiate or blind their targets).

- Europe's Tragedy: A New History of the Thirty Years War, pg 86

also

The Persians exploited ongoing unrest within the Ottoman empire to renew the war in 1623, capturing Baghdad and slaughtering all the Sunni inhabitants who failed to escape. The loss of Iraq triggered convulsions throughout the Ottoman empire, including major revolts in Syria and Yemen which disrupted revenue ... - Ibid., pg 103

то есть в тех краях 400 лет назад происходило примерно то же самое, что сейчас. замечательная стабильность.