m75

Form of mace head popular from the i2th century on. The head is of iron, 5^in in length and 4^in across from flange edge to flange edge. Mace heads of this type weighed between four and six pounds and were quite capable of crushing a helmet and skuli.

were a mixture of mercenary and feudal troops, of Turks, Arabs and various aliens converted to Islam. However, much of thc ioth-ccntury army organi-zation survived in the Egyptian army of the Fatimie! dynasty (909-1170), while the United forces of Egypt and Syria under Saladin in the late i2th century also retained some of the earlier military system. The following summary of Ab-basid army organization is therefore intended to illustrate the basie framework upon which later rulers imposed their own variations.

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Mid-i4th century falchion of the generał type used by infantry and some knights in the late i3th century. Falchions used earlier in the century had much thicker blades near the point. (Norwich Museum)

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THE ABBASID ARMIES

The Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad (750-1258), although influenced by the Byzantine military system, did not maintain a large standing army and the caliph’s bodyguard was the only standing force in the true sense of the term. This bodyguard consisted of four types of troops: the Imperial bodyguard itself, supported by ‘regiments’ of heavy cavalry, heavy infantry and archers. The Imperial Guard of 4000 men consisted mainly of Turks from Transoxiana.

To this hard core was added, in times of war, mercenaries, volunteers led by their tribal chiefs, and feudal levies from the provinces. I’he volun-teers, who served Islam and their caliph for religious reasons, were fed by the caliph but had to supply their own weapons and mounts. The mercenaries consisted mainly of aliens who had embraced Islam, freąuently professional soldiers who accepted Islam only in order to enter the caliplfs service. Thus an Abbasid army coulcl include in its ranks not just Berbers and Africans, but also Russians, Franks, Greeks and Persians.

In thc late ioth century the army was divided into four main corps: men of northern Arabia, men of Southern Arabia, Persians, and Turks and Africans. Each corps had an attached body of mounted archers, either Persians or Turks. A corps usually consisted of 10,000 men, commanded by an amir. A ‘regiment’ of 1000 was commanded by a Qa’id, a company or sąuadron of 100 by a Nakib, a sub-group of 50 men by a Khalifah, and a section of 10 men within that group by an Aarif.