The Armies of Islam

7th-11th Centuries

by George H. Schneider, Ph.D.

by David Nicolle
Color Plates by Angus McBride
(London:1982)

THE ARMIES OF ISLAM is one of the latest volumes in the Osprey Men-at-Arms series (#125) and is a welcome addition to the wargamer's resources on medieval warfare. It surveys the first five centuries of the expansion and consolidation of Islam upon most of the Eurasian land mass. David Nicolle has organized his text in general chronological order, and he includes many photographs taken from archeological digs and of still standing structures to illustrate many points of reference. He also includes several sketches of armor and weapons of this period as a further visual display of his text.

He begins with a chronicle of major military events, divided into the principle geographic sectors of Islam: Arabia and the Fertile Crescent; Egypt and North Africa; Byzantium; Iran; Central Asia and India,- and Western Europe. He carefully distinguishes the details of army compositions and tactical arrays per geographic sector, and he relates the influence of external powers upon the military evolution of Islamic armies. Examples here include the influence of central asian horse archers upon eastern Islamic armies, and the development of heavily armored cavalry in Andalusia to counter European heavy cavalry. Islamic armies generally began as infantry and/or mounted infantry forces with some light cavalry support. By the middle of the period included in this book, the transition to a mixed infantry-cavalry force had been completed. The influence of stirrups, lamellar armor, horse archery, etc., transformed Islamic armies into successfully integrated combined arms forces which held their own against a wide variety of foes.

The author concludes his text with descriptions of several battles taken from European and Islamic sources, to further describe and analyze Islamic tactical compositions and applications. This portion of the book by itself should lead to wargame recreations done in an accurate manner.

Angus McBride has supplied several pages of beautifully-done plates illustrating Islamic soldiers during these centuries. Each set is taken from a distinct geographical sector per century(ies), and these sets will act as positive guides to the painting of medieval Islamic armies.

THE ARMIES OF ISLAM: 7TH-11TH CENTURIES is highly recommended as a relatively inexpensive and highly informative guide to this aspect of medieval warfare.

Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. IV #3
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1982 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com