15th century Mamluk treatise on military affairs. Burning naphtha was used to set ships and towns on fire and to scare horses. Naphtha men are shown carrying lances or javelins with cartridges of naphtha fixed to them. The word naphtha came from Latin and Greek where it derived from Persian. In Ancient Greek, it was used to refer to any sort of petroleum or pitch. Arabs and Persians have used and distilled petroleum for tar and fuel from ancient times, as attested in local Greek and Roman histories of the region.