48-JLS-0040

ARMS AND ARMOR OF THE

An Interactive Qualifying Project Report:

Submitted to the Faculty

Of the

WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Science

By

John David Quartararo ______

Jon Mulla ______

Guin Petrousky ______

Eric Hall ______

Joseph Hsu ______

Date:

Approved:

Professor Jeffrey Forgeng

Abstract

This project was created with the Higgins Armory Museum in an effort to catalogue artifacts of Middle Eastern Arms & Armor, and to place the artifacts in a historical, cultural, and military context. Research papers outline the history, culture, weapons and arms from the lands of Turkey, North , Persia, Arabia, as well as an overview of the advent of . The artifacts have been photographed and catalogued, and all of this information is integrated into an interactive website.

2 Table of Contents

Introduction ...... 5 Islamic Overview ...... 8 Arabia before Islam ...... 8 The life of ...... 9 The “Rightly Guided Caliphs” and the Umayyads ...... 11 The Abbasids ...... 12 The Fatimids ...... 14 Turkish Expansion ...... 16 Later Expansion ...... 18 The Koran ...... 18 Traditions ...... 20 Science and Technology ...... 22 Military Technology ...... 24 Military Treatises ...... 24 Archers ...... 26 ...... 26 Artillery and Fortifications ...... 27 Persia ...... 28 History...... 28 Persian Culture ...... 37 Persian Battle Tactics ...... 40 Persian Arms ...... 45 ...... 47 ...... 50 Guns ...... 51 Persian Armor ...... 54 Arabia ...... 63 History...... 63 Islamic Era ...... 67 Culture...... 75 Technology ...... 77 Military ...... 80 Arms ...... 82 Armor ...... 83 Islamic North Africa ...... 85 History of ...... 85 History of Western North Africa (The Maghrib) ...... 94 Arms of Islamic North Africa ...... 104 ...... 104 ...... 104 Physical Description ...... 105

3 Moroccan Jambiya...... 105 ...... 106 Physical Description ...... 107 ...... 107 Physical Description ...... 108 Takouba...... 109 Physical Description ...... 110 Armor ...... 113 Mail ...... 113 Limb Armor ...... 113 ...... 113 Shields ...... 114 The Ottoman ...... 115 Ottoman History...... 115 Ottoman Culture ...... 122 Military Culture in the ...... 125 Arms and Armor ...... 128 Conclusion ...... 132 Website Documentation ...... 134 The “Musket Rollover” interactive exhibit ...... 140 Bibliography ...... 141 About Us ...... 146

4

Introduction

This project focuses on studying artifacts from the Middle East and describing their

technological, cultural, and historical attributes. Focus is placed on studies of North Africa,

Persia, Turkey, Arabia and the impact of the advent of Islam. This data has been made available to the public through a searchable online database.

Our IQP was conducted primarily at the Higgins Armory Museum, located in Worcester,

Massachusetts. This museum has a permanent collection of approximately 4,600 pieces of

European and non-European arms and armor, representing over 2500 years of history, and is dedicated solely to the study of arms and armor. We have identified and photographed over 120

Islamic pieces from the Higgins collection.

Of all the religions that has dealt with in its history, Islam was the most feared and battled. Possibly this is because the only world religion to come about after

Christianity was Islam, having grown from the beliefs of the prophet Muhammad in the early 7th

century. For over a millennium Islam was thought to be an enemy of Christianity and western civilization. Politically speaking, the Islamic conflict with Christianity began with the conquest

of by the in the beginning of the 8th century, and ended with the failure of the siege

of Vienna by the in 1683. Knowledge of the arms and armor used in critical

battles of this time has provided insight into how the Islamic regions became what they are today. Section 1 of the following document will serve as on overview of the Islamic period and will relate the origins of Islam, general history, trade and science, to the warfare tactics and weapons used by the in different regions.

5 In addition to a general overview of Islam and the arms and armor of the time, the

primary geographical areas of Islamic development will be discussed in greater detail.

Arabia played a pivotal role in the rise of the Islamic religion. The prophet Muhammed,

was born in the . Through conquests by Arabian armies, Islamic religion and

culture spread throughout the Middle East. Arabia’s location was also vital to the spread of

Islam. It was a major crossroad for trade routes, people from many other countries came across

Arabia and its culture. Today, Modern Arabia is made up of countries on the Arabian Peninsula.

These countries today are known to be , United Arab , , ,

Jordan, , and . In ancient times Arabia was comprised of in the southwest region: Minaean, Sibaean, and Himyarite.

North Africa stretches from present day to Egypt and has throughout history been a very turbulent area. North Africa has seen the rise and fall of many such as

Phoenician, Carthagian, Pharaonic Egypt and roman empires. North Africa has also seen many different religions and cultures which all have left their mark on the cultures of the people of the present day. The focus of section 3 will be on the period of Islamic rule in the majority of North

Africa. The emergence of Islamic rule began around the years of 644-656 when the Muslim

Arab armies under the rule of the "Rightly Guided Caliph" ibn Affan, began to conquer

North Africa. A series of Islamic followed after these initial conquests, many of which had power struggles and ideological strife. These include the Umayyad, Aghlabid and the

Fatimid dynasties.

Persia is a large piece of land between Turkey and , centralized in , which

saw radical changes in the 7th century, leading to the establishment of Islam. Before this, much

6 of the region was controlled by the . Arab armies conquered this area, with a decisive victory at the Battle of Naharand in the year 642 A.D. Islamic culture was thus established, with major cities dotting present day Iraq and Iran such as , Samarra and

Damascus. The rise of Islamic civilization led to Islamic art and the basis for present day Islamic culture in Persia.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and most powerful of the Islamic empires.

The Turkish-speaking peoples became a force in the Middle East, and the constant concern of

Europe, after the widespread acceptance of Islam in the course of the tenth century. In 1453 they took , having evolved in a few centuries from nomadic tribes to emirates to an empire, which replaced the disintegrated .

The Ottoman Empire had a tremendous influence in the Middle East. They were constantly in conflict with Iran and Persia. In the 16th century, the former fell to the Turks. In 1517, the Turks defeated the of Egypt and , and their leader Selim 1 succeeded to the . In 1518, they took , reaching their greatest level of expansion in the 16th century. In the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire began to decline, and after World

War One it collapsed completely with the secularization of Turkey. However, the Ottoman

Empire had ruled a tremendous tract of land, influenced other cultures, and contributed to the development of the Islamic religion over the six centuries of its strength.

Studying the weapons used in the decisive battles of this time can give a deeper understanding and appreciation of the historical events that took place centuries ago. This project aims to relate the historical, cultural, technological, and military context to these weapons and pieces of armor as they apply to Persian history.

7 Islamic Overview

Arabia before Islam

Before Islam, central Arabia had a rather primitive religion. They regarded caves and stones as sacred and filled with blessing power (Baraka). The city of was at the center of this cultish religion. The pre-Islamic religion that existed there recognized a great black stone in the south eastern corner of the Ka’ba, the central sanctuary in Mecca. This stone was the destination of many pilgrimages. These pilgrimages brought many people to Mecca and helped the city flourish as an economic trade center.

Muslims refer to the life of Arabs during the period before Islam as jahiliyya, “time of ignorance”. Judging by the literature, it was a time when many Arabs showed little trace of deep religious feeling. Around the year 500, “seekers” began to appear. They were people who were unsatisfied with the dominant religion. These seekers were called Hanif. The belief in one high

God (Allah) was the center of their religion. The stage was being set for a great change in religion and culture in Arabia.

8

The life of Muhammad

In 570, in the city of Mecca, Muhammad was born as a member of the Hashim Clan of the Quraish. It was unknown at the time, but Muhammad would one day provide these seekers with the divine message for which they were searching. Muhammad’s parents died when he was young and he was raised by his uncle (Abu Talib). The first wife he took was Khadija, they had several children, of whom four daughters survived. Khadija died when Muhammad was about

50.

When he was about 40, Muhammad went to Mt. Hira to meditate as he did often. There he was overcome by the visions and voices of a divine mandate. Sura 96 of the Koran tells of this experience. After this event, he realized his purpose and began taking action to spread the word of God to all who would listen. His first proclamations were that a day of reckoning would

9 soon come, and that those who had forgotten God would have to answer (Sura 81). He also

announced to his followers, that the only sin that cannot be forgiven is shirk, (associating

something with god).

In 622 A. D. the Prophet was ordered by God to migrate to Yathrib, a city north of

Mecca. He followed the Divine Command and left with his followers for that city which

henceforth was known as "The City of the Prophet" (Madinat al-nabi) or simply . This

event was so momentous that the begins with this migration (hijrah). In Medina, the Prophet established the first Islamic society, which has served as the model for all later

Islamic societies. Several battles took place against the invading Meccans which the Muslims

won against great odds. Soon more tribes began to join Islam and within a few years most of

Arabia had embraced the religion of Islam.

Eight years after moving to Medina, Muhammad made a triumphant return to Mecca.

During the 8 years that Muhammad was gone to Medina, there were several battles. In Badr

(624), a small group of Muslims encountered a strong Meccan army and were victorious. One

year later the Meccans gained a small victory near Uhud. Once Mecca gave in, Muhammad

returned. He forgave many of those who had plotted against him.

By 628 Muhammad had sent letters to Byzantium, Iran, and Egypt to invite them to embrace Islam. Soon after the letters were sent by Muhammad the first encounters with the

Byzantines took place. Muhammad died after performing the rites of the pilgrimage in 632.

Between Khadija’s death and his own, Muhammad married several wives. One of these was the young A’isha, in whose house Muhammad passed away. Her father, Abu Bakr As-Siddiq became his first successor, or “Caliph”. During Abu Bakr’s short reign as Caliph (632-634),

Muslim armies reached southern Iraq and . This opened the opportunity for Abu Bakr’s

10 successor, Umar ibn Al-Khattab (634-644), to have great military success. was conquered in 635, Egypt in 639-644, and most of Persia in 640-644.

The “Rightly Guided Caliphs” and the Umayyads

Immediately after the prophet’s death, Muhammad’s father-in-law, Abu Bakr, was elected to become the first Caliph and secular head of Islam. A Caliph is one who is taking the place of Muhammad as the leader of Islam, similar to the Pope of Christianity. None of

Muhammad’s family was allowed at this council of Meccan and Medinan leaders. Many of his family members believed that Muhammad had designated ‘ (Muhammad’s cousin) as his successor. However under the caliphate of Abu Bakr and his successor ‘Umar, ‘Ali made no attempts to seize the Caliphate. It was not until the next Caliph, Uthman, a member of the

Umayyad family who had fought Muhammad, that ‘Ali was provoked into claiming his position.

After the assassination of Uthman by rebels, ‘Ali became the fourth Caliph of Islam.

Many members of the Umayyad family were still in powerful political positions, leading to dissensions among the populace under ‘Ali. Eventually ‘Ali was ousted from Medina and the

Caliphate, and was assassinated by one of his own troops. After this point, the Islamic world was divided into two factions the Umayyads who would pass the Caliphate down among their family for ages, and the followers of Ali who refused to recognize the authority of the

Umayyads.

The first Islamic began approximately 30 years after Muhammad’s death, and was ruled by the Umayyad family. In general, the Umayyads (661-750) are not thought highly

11 of in Islamic history. This is in large part due to the recklessness and forcefulness they used to

gain power. To many, the was plagued by weak and cruel Caliphs.

Muhammad and the first Caliphs lived their lives very much like that of the people they ruled

over. The Umayyads however modeled themselves after and separated their courts from

the Muslim community. In this way the was much more similar to a

than a religious leadership body.

The fall of the Umayyad dynasty in the mid 750’s came about by a series of rebellions

led by the Abbasids. After the overthrow of the Umayyads, the leader of the Abbasids ruthlessly

murdered as many of the remaining Umayyads as he could, including the last of the Umayyad

caliphs, Marwan II who ruled from 744-750. Under the Umayyads, the Muslim rule extended to the Atlantic (691). They reached Byzantium and crossed the Straight of Gibraltar in 711. The

last Umayyad fled to Andalusia, where he founded a kingdom (756).

The Abbasids

The rise of the Abbasid dynasty immediately followed the fall of the Umayyad’s reign.

Two Islamic populations, non-Arabic Muslims and Shiites founded the (758-

1258). Much of the Islamic acceptance of the Abbasid revolution was due to the secularism of

the Umayyad caliphs. The Umayyads had also opposed Muhammad during his life, which lost them credibility with many Muslims.

The name Abbasid stems from one of Muhammad’s uncles, al-Abbas. In 718 AD,

Muhammad ibn’Ali, the great grandson of al-Abbas, began rallying for support from Persia to

12 return the Caliphate to the Hashimites (descendents of Muhammad). When the Abbasids took

control of the Caliphate, Islam’s cultural center shifted from Arabia and Syria, to the Persian world in Iran and Iraq. The change of the capital from Damascus to Baghdad melded the

Arabian Semitic culture with that of Persia.

The Abbasid dynasty began when Abu l-Abbas became Caliph (750-754 AD). Viciously, he consolidated the empire. Like the Umayyads, rather than surrounding himself with the Arabs who had aided his rise to power, he hired foreigners to political positions. This separation from the general Islamic population caused great resentment, particularly from Arab Muslims.

After being removed from power, the Umayyads fought to establish a new empire in

Spain. This was accomplished in 756 although no formal Caliphate was set up until 929. To accomplish the conquest of Spain, the Umayyads enlisted the help of the North African .

This “Moorish” Islamic culture that grew in Spain was radically different from that of the

Abbasid dynasty.

The Abbasid rulers attempted to prove their religious adherence more than their predecessors. Abbasid rulers also no longer meant for their empire to be Arab, as it had been under the Umayyads. Instead it was Islamic. The transfer of the capital from Damascus to

Baghdad in 756 opened the floodgates to Persian cultural influence. Baghdad’s greatest period was under Harun A-Rashid (786-809).

The Abbasids gained many enemies. Their first threat came from the west with the newly established Umayyad rule over Spain. The North African allies of the Umayyads grew closer to the Abbasid rule when the Berbers set up Islamic states in North Africa in 801. The

Shiites, whose beliefs and rhetoric helped to found the Abbasid dynasty, also revolted against the

13 Abbasids. The abandonment of ties to Shiite beliefs by the Abbasids led to an uprising in Mecca in 786.

After Caliph al-Wathiq (842-847), the decline of the Abbasid caliphate began. Princes in border areas of the Abbasid empire began asserting their independence. The founder of the

Persian Shiite dynasty of the Bunaihids, Mu’izz Adaula, adopted the title “” for the first time in 932. In 945, the Bunaihids took over rule in Baghdad and maintained the Caliph as a figurehead. The area around Iraq had fallen to the by 945. Although Abbasids remained Caliphs until 1030, they served merely as figureheads and wielded little real power.

The Fatimids

The reign of the Fatimid dynasty spanned from 909 to 1171. The Fatimids claimed to be descendants of Fatima, the daughter of Muhammad, and wife of Ali, the fourth caliph.

Following the old ideas of the caliph, the Fatimid caliphs defined themselves to be sinless, and divinely chosen to exemplify the true form of Islam. The ultimate goal of the Fatimids was to replace the Abbasid caliphate of Baghdad with their own. The Fatimids were zealous missionaries, and managed to spread the religion into Yemen and large parts of Egypt. By military means, they managed to widen their control over areas beyond the homeland of , into large parts of North Africa, Sardinia and . Towards the end of the 10th century, the

Fatimids made Egypt their center, and managed even to extend control into the homelands of

Islam, and got control over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Missionaries were also sent to

14 India and . The Fatimid missionaries were organized well. They represented an organization within the state that had great power.

The Fatimids established many libraries and colleges, where Isma'ili missionaries were trained. They were often secretly organized, and worked undercover in foreign states aiming at converting important individuals to Isma'ili Shi'ism, so that the state eventually could turn away from the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad.

In the early periods of Fatimid rule, the caliph was personally involved in the affairs of the government. But over time, the importance of the army over state affairs grew increasingly important. From the , the power in state affairs moved over to the hands of the and the generals. As part of their campaign against the caliph of Baghdad, the Fatimids established a new route for the important trade with Asia over the , instead of the Persian

Gulf, which had been dominating until then.

15

Height of the Fatimid dynasty, 1200

Turkish Expansion

In Egypt, two Turkish dynasties succeeded each other as supporters of the Abbasids.

They were ousted in 969 by Shiite Fatimids from North Africa, who conquered the country and

founded . In the east the Turkish Sultan Mahmud of Ghazna extended power to India. In

1026 Lahore became the capital of the Indian province of the , who were strongly

influenced by Persian culture. While Mahmud and his successors consolidated their empire,

other Turkish groups from central Asia entered Iran and Iraq.

In 1055 the Seljuk prince Tughrul Beg, assumed the role of guardian of the weak Abbasid

Caliph. These Seljuks, stern Sunnites, were one of the most important empires in the near east

16 and inspired much development in Islamic culture and art. In 1071, the Seljuk’s victory over the

Byzantines opened the way into for the Muslims. Still today stand grand mosques,

madrashas and mausoleums built by the Rum Seljuks. Their realm extended to the southern

coastal area of Anatolia.

By 1095, Muslim territory included land where Jesus Christ had lived. At this point,

Islam had spread far from its birthplace in the modern nation of Saudi Arabia. Christians of the

time believed that they, not the Muslims, should control their holy lands. The Crusades, meaning

“war of the cross”, were a series of wars launched by European Christians to win back their holy

lands from the Muslims. Ultimately the crusaders were unable to reclaim their holy lands.

Crusader states, 1110

17 Later Expansion

Much of Islamic civilization was destroyed by the Mongol onslaught, beginning in

central Asia (1220). The Abbasid Empire succumbed to the Mongols, and the last Caliph was

killed in 1258. Baghdad was mostly destroyed by this campaign. In Anatolia, the Mongols also

destroyed the Rum Seljuk reign.

1250 marked the beginning of the reign in Egypt, and in 1260, they were able to

stop the Mongol hordes at Ain Jalut in Syria. In 1382, the changed its political

system from a hereditary throne to an elected Sultan. Mamluk rule over Egypt, Syria, and the

holy cities of Mecca and Medina ended in 1516 when Ottoman troops, lead by Selim the Grim,

vanquished the Egyptian army.

In 1326 the Ottomans emerged as leaders. They took a large part of the Balkans in 1389.

The central battle took place in Kosovo (Yugoslavia). On May 29, 1453 Constantinople

() was conquered and became the new heart of the Ottoman Empire. Muhammad had

said, “They will conquer Constantinople – hail to the people and hail to the army who will do

so.”

The Koran

The Koran is the foundation of Islam. To Muslims, it is not the word of the prophet, but

the word of God told through the prophet. Since the Koran is the divine word of God, Muslims

consider it inconceivable to translate it into another language. A translation is only an explanation of the book’s meaning. There are five main religious duties, as told in the Koran, known as the “pillars of Islam”. They are, in order; the profession of faith (), the ritual

18 prayer, the alms tax, fasting in , and the pilgrimage to Mecca. The Koran also

emphasizes the nightly prayer (tahajjud), which was never made mandatory but was and is

practiced among the pious.

The pillars of Islam are the framework of the life of a pious Muslim. The first pillar is

the declaration of faith, “There is no God worthy of worship except God, and Muhammad is his

messenger.” All faithful Muslims pronounce this simple phrase. Next is the pillar of prayer.

Salat is a set of prayers performed five times a day and considered to be a way of directly

communicating with God. Since there is no religious hierarchy in Islam, the prayers are led by

any member of the congregation who is knowledgeable in the Koran. These prayers are said at

dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and nightfall, and are clearly central to the life of a Muslim.

The third pillar of Islam is charity. Also referred to as zakat, each Muslim calculates his or her

own zakat, and donates this percentage of their earnings to some sort of charity. Each year

during the month of Ramadan, Muslims fast from dawn until sundown. The only exceptions to

this are made for the sick, pregnant, or nursing. The fast is considered a means of self

purification; by limiting one’s self even for a short period, the Muslim gains sympathy toward

those who go hungry and are less fortunate. The final pillar is the pilgrimage to Mecca. This is

only an obligation for those who are financially and physically able to make the journey.

Approximately two million people from all over the world go to Mecca each year. These

pilgrims wear the same simple clothing so that there is no distinction of social-economic class

before God. They join together in prayers and ceremonies, uniting the entire world of Islam and

strengthening the bond of Muslims.

19

Shahada inscribed on an Ottoman palace in Istanbul.

Beside the lack of a good translation, one difficulty with the Koran for the non-Muslim

reader is that the text is not in chronological order. For example, the chapters (or suras) are

arranged in descending length. Also, threats of judgment day, which were the first and short

revelations, are at the end of the Koran. Only one short prayer was chosen as an introduction.

This is the Fatima, “the opening”, which is of similar meaning to the Lord’s Prayer in

Christianity. The first Latin translation of the Koran was done in 1143 by Robertus Ketenens,

and in 1616, it was translated to Italian.

The Koran emphasizes the significance of knowledge and encourages Muslims to learn

and to acquire knowledge not only of God's laws, but also of the natural world. The Koran refers

to the importance of seeing, contemplating, and reasoning about the world. It places the gaining of knowledge as the highest religious activity, one that is satisfying in God's eyes. That is why wherever the message of the Koran was accepted, the quest for knowledge flourished.

Traditions

Early in the , Muslims realized that the Koran, the word of God, did not

encompass every detail of life. The first Muslims therefore turned to Muhammad for answers to

20 questions on how to live their lives. Even years after the death of the prophet, Muslims put forth great efforts to imitate his example. The Koran itself states “Verily in the messenger of God you have a beautiful model for everyone who hopes for God and the Last Judgment and often remembers God” (Sura 33/21). Muhammad’s custom (sunna) became an interpretation of the

Koran.

One of the most widespread examples of imitation of the Prophet is circumcision.

Although it was never mentioned in the Koran, it is one of the most distinguishing traditions among Muslim men. Also in tradition but not the Koran are the ideas behind the sacred days and nights for Muslims. Yet another Islamic tradition is the reading of texts on one’s birthday

(maulud). One such script is Suleyman Chelebi’s Mevlud-I sheriff, which is often recited at birthday celebrations, as well as other religious events and the anniversary of a death.

One of the celebrations which have no connection with the Koran is the lailat al-baraa which precedes the beginning of Ramadan. This is the night that Muslims believe their sins are forgiven and their fate for the next year will be determined. Also celebrated is the day of Ghadir

Khum, on 17 Dhu’l-hijja. This was the day that Muhammad chose Ali to be his successor.

In Islamic tradition, scholars of the law are considered preservers of the tradition and have even been regarded almost as a type of clergy. In the late 10th and early 11th centuries, a general consensus among the scholars of the Islamic world arose. This idea was that no longer would anyone investigate the Koran or the customs of the prophet to find solutions to new problems. It was thought that these resources were closed and that whatever had been accepted up to that point must remain valid for all time. Many Muslim traditions were preserved for centuries for exactly this reason. In the , modernists from India, Egypt and Turkey

21 began to go back to the Koran and teachings of Muhammad to stimulate activity among

Muslims.

Tensions between Islam and Christianity are enhanced by the references to Jesus in the

Koran. Islamic tradition acknowledges that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, but does not

acknowledge that Jesus is the son of God. Rather they view Jesus as the last of the prophets

before Muhammad. Also the Koran does not accept the crucifixion, thus the holy symbol of the

cross is not significant to Muslims.

One traditional theological dispute among Muslims was over the concept of

predestination. The Koran touches upon this topic several times and seemingly contradicts itself.

The early Umayyad rulers chose to believe in fate, and that everything was predestined. This

allowed them to use fate as an excuse: when they made unpopular political decisions, they could claim that it was not their fault, it was predestined. Others did admit that human beings have the ability to choose their own actions and thus are responsible for them.

Science and Technology

Prior to the advent of Islam, was the center of education in the Middle East.

The scholars there were primarily interested in the natural sciences, with great influence from

Hellenistic civilization. The real beginnings of Islamic science did not come about until the

ninth century AD, almost two hundred years after the advent of Islam. During this period,

Muslims directed their efforts toward building the Islamic state and developing boundaries and

legal systems. Universities, libraries, and academies played a great role in the continuing pursuit

of knowledge among Muslims. The prestige of these institutions made young scholars eager to

22 travel many miles to learn among the most distinguished Islamic scholars.

Islamic scientists made great advancements in the field of mathematics. Musa Al-

Khuwarizmi was responsible for the foundations of Islamic algebra, and hence western algebra as well. The greatest influence of Islamic astronomy came from Greek works from Alexandria.

Among these, Ptolemy’s work is surely the most notable. The works of Islamic astronomers helped to correct many misconceptions in the academic world. Their works proved useful in the eventual acceptance of a helio-centric universe, replacing the old geo-centric system.

During the height of the Islamic period, the Arabic language was used by everyone from

Baghdad to Cordoba. It was used in everyday speech, as well as in science and literature.

Arabic replaced several languages during the spread of Islam, among these were Greek and

Latin. One reason for this is that Arabic is the language of the Koran, and thus is respected and considered holy to all Muslims. For the first time in history, people from as far east as Persia and India, shared a common language with people from as far west as Spain.

The Arabic language played a key role in the development of science and technology in the Islamic world. Scientific writings from Greece to India were translated into Arabic, allowing scholars from all ends of the Islamic world to learn from one another.

Mosques were often centers of learning. From this beginning came more formal approaches to learning. Eventually schools were created with mosques attached to them. The most important universities were the al-Azhar in Cairo, the Zaytuniyya in , and the

Qarawiyyin in Fez. Hospitals and schools of medicine were attached to form a union between healing and teaching. Often times Caliphs would become patrons of scientists and engineers by budgeting salaries for these scholars so they could study and teach full time.

23 Trade was the third largest source of national income to the Islamic world, just behind

agriculture and industry. The geographical position of Islamic countries allowed them to exploit

both land and sea ways, and thus dominate international trade. This aided the development of

large cities with grand market places increasing the economic strength of Islamic countries.

Trade with grew immensely throughout the Islamic period. Islamic currency

became used in Europe and has been found there dating from the seventh to the thirteenth

centuries AD. This was the period of Muslim dominance in international trade. Muslim

territories also served as a trade hub between the far eastern nations such as China, India, and

Indonesia, and Europe.

Military Technology

Arabic Military Treatises Before the rise of the Ottoman Turks, the greatest successes of Muslim armies in the

Middle Ages were the Arab conquests of the 7th century AD and the victories of the Ayyubid and

Mamluk armies in the 12th and 13th centuries AD. From the 12th-14th centuries many military treatises were composed. These were thought to have arisen from the need to confront the crusaders. Treatises in the early Islamic period were generally categorized under the following three headings: furusiyya (horsemanship), archery, and military tactics.

24 Edged Weapons

For both infantry and cavalry, the preferred weapon of Muslims was the . Different

Islamic regions implemented such varied sword constructions that no standard Islamic sword can be identified. The curved sword, or , that is often associated with Arabian warriors, did

not come into use until the 14th century AD. An example of the most common style of Arabian sword, used throughout much of the Islamic period, is shown in the figure below. The is single edged and curved at the tip. The hilt had a crosspiece and a knob at the base usually made of steel (al-Hassan, 97).

HAM 3080.A, Arabian , early 20th century

Compared to the sword, lances could be constructed at minimal cost. These were typically made from an iron spear-head attached to a cut-down tree branch. Lances varied in length from 2 meters to 7 meters. Many other edged weapons were used by Muslims. The javelin was a short lance used as a throwing spear. were commonly carried by warriors at the waist or concealed under clothing.

25

HAM 3094.1, Typical Spear Head, 19th century

Archers Muslim archers were more highly regarded and appreciated than those of western armies.

Islamic archers became very distinguished; this led to the development of composite bows which

were stronger than the wooden western standard. Arrows were made with either a wooden or

reed shaft, feather ‘flights’, and arrow heads of varying materials. Well constructed bows could

reach 500 meters and pierce body armor at 150 meters. The use of crossbows was minimal until

the 12th century AD. Even then, long bows were preferred, having greater rates of fire and being

less cumbersome.

Cavalry In the early Islamic period, horses in the armies of Islam were fairly scarce. Other

armies, such as the Byzantines and the Iranians were able to put more cavalry into the field. For

this reason, the Arabs avoided battles in open level grounds which were well suited to cavalry.

Thus, the major battles of Yarmuk and Qadisiyya were won by infantry, and not horseback warriors. At the start of the Umayyad rule, Umar I realized the growing need for horses in the military and began collecting them from all regions of his rule.

26 When Arabs began joining forces with outsiders (such as the Berbers, Turks, and

Khurasanis), they learned new styles of combat and horsemanship. The Mamluks were among

the most prominent users of cavalry during the early Islamic period. The primary weapons of the

Mamluk horsemen were the sword, lance, bow, shield and mace. Typically, the lance was held in

one or both hands, with the mace secured under the leather of the stirrup. Training of Mamluk

horseman was extremely thorough. Mamluk cavalry were trained until they could ride bareback

and saddled over all types of terrain. Furthermore they were required to learn combat techniques

with the lance and bow from horseback. The Mamluks strong and well trained cavalry helped

them to win battles against the Crusaders and the Mongols (al-Hassan, 95).

Artillery and Fortifications

The trebuchet was popularly used as a siege engine during Islamic times. This device

was similar to a catapult. It consisted of two towers which supported a wooden axial. At one

end of this lever arm was a counter weight, while at the other end there was a holding device for

various missile weapons. These projectiles could weigh as much as 200 kilograms and be hurled

up to 300 meters. By the 13th century AD the trebuchet was widely used among Islamic armies.

The Abbasid dynasty is credited for beginning the employment of military engineers in charge of siege weaponry including catapults, trebuchets, and battering rams. These weapons were used to hurl both solid projectiles as well as exploding missile

27 Persia

History

The land of Persia is one that has seen many ethnic groups, leaders, and bloodshed. From

ancient times, dynasties have risen and fallen with the mistakes and victories of many great

people, and influences from different religions and regions have made their marks. The Persian

Empire has controlled portions of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Afghanistan, with many changes in

actual geographical control over the centuries.

The land of Persia, Map courtesy Limbert.

Pre-Islamic Persia saw three great kingdoms in the land of Iran. The first, the Assyrian kingdom of Bactria, was in control until about 708 B.C. Bactria fell to the Median Empire, ruled by Phraortes from 647-625 B.C. and by Cyaxares from 625-585 B.C. In the year 525 B.C., Cyrus the Great defeated the Astayages and ushered in the Achæmenian dynasty, which he ruled from

28 558-530 B.C. This third kingdom of pre-Islamic Persia was known as the Medo-Persian kingdom. Succeeding the Achæmenian was Parthian control, which was in place from 250 B.C. until 226 A.D., called the Arsacid Dynasty. In 226 A.D., the Iranian House of Sasan took control, and spread the Zoroastrian faith from the Sasanian capital, Ctesiphon. This was the last period of rule before Persia saw great changes under an Islamic transformation.

In the year 621, Arab armies conquered a major portion of Persia and worked until 661 trying to continue the spread of Islam under four caliphs. In the 630s, Arab armies penetrated

Mesopotamia under caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab. Islamic culture was thus established.

Ali ibn Abi Talib, the 4th caliph, was assassinated in 661. Syria seized control under the rule of Mu’awiya, and ushered in the Umayyad Dynasty (Ommiad in some texts). The Umayyad capital of Damascus in Syria held control of Persia from 661-749. The Abbasid Dynasty (749-

847) shifted focus from Syria to Iraq, naming Baghdad as capital in 762.

The Arab-Muslim Empire to 750 A.D, Map courtesy Lapidus.

29 From 820-872, the ruled the city of Khorasan in the name of the Abbasid

Caliphs. However, the Tahirids were overthrown by the Saffarids in Khorasan (867). From 867 to 903, the Saffarids also took Afghanistan, parts of Iraq-e-Ajam, and Kerman. The Saffarids began to push for total control by marching towards Baghdad in 876, but were crushed by the

Caliph’s forces only 50 miles from their destination. The Saffarids would rule until 903, when they would be overthrown by the Samanids.

However, the Samanids would not be in power for long, as the Turks were soon ready to take their share of this historic land. The Ghaznavids, originating from Turkey, took control from 961-1040 under the rule of Alp-Tegin (d. 963). The Ghaznavids were defeated in the year

1040 at the Battle of Dandanakan by the Turkish Seljuqs. Seljuq control would remain in place from 1040-1200.

The Middle East in the early 11th century Ghaznavid Era, Map courtesy Lapidus.

30

The Middle East in the late 11th century Seljuk (Saljuq) Era, Map courtesy Lapidus.

In the 13th century, power in Persia shifted from mainly Turkish rule to a period of

macabre Mongol control, the first non-Muslim power in over 600 years. In 1220, Sebuk-Tegin

(d. 997), commanded his Mongol forces to take the cities of Transoxiana and subsequently,

Samarkand and . In 1221, the legendary Genghis Khan (d. 1227) led his Mongol forces

across Oxus and took the Khorasan cities of Marv, Herat, and Nishapur. There was much

bloodshed, as the Mongols massacred entire city populations; an estimated 700,000 lost their

lives in Marv, and over 600,000 people died in Herat. Genghis Khan’s successor, Hülegü Khan, captured Baghdad and assassinated the last Abbasid Caliph in 1258, ushering in complete

Mongol control of Persia.

31

The Mongol Empires of the 13th century, Map courtesy Lapidus.

Succeeding Hülegü Khan was the Il-Khan rule. The Mongol control led to economic despair by focusing on geographical control at the expense of its citizens; extremely heavy taxes were imposed that crippled the population and its growth. Many of the problems arose when

Ghazan Khan rose to power (ruled 1295-1304, also the first Muslim Il-Khan). In 1335, the last

Il-Khan, Abu Sa’id Bahador (ruled 1316-1335) was killed, and the Ilkhanid Dynasty ended and broke into five kingdoms:

1. The Jalayerids, controlling Iraq and Azerbaijan

2. The Inju, controlling Fars and Isfahan

3. The Muzaffarids in Yazd and Kerman

4. The Sarbedarids in the Sabzevar Region

5. The Kurts in Herat

32 Timur (Tamerlane), originating from a Turko-Mongol tribe in Transoxiana, established

Samarkand as the capital and ushered in the Timurid Dynasty in 1370. Within 35 years, Timur had taken Central Asia, Iran, and Iraq. The Timurid Dynasty would be in place from 1370-1501.

Another empire then rose to power, the . They took control in 1501, and the dynasty would last until their defeat in 1722. Isma’il Safavi, a descendant of Sufi shaiks, was crowned the new ruler in Tabriz in 1501. The Safavids established the new official Shiite religion and the persecution of Christians, Jews, and nonconformist Muslims was prevalent under Abbas II (ruled 1642-1666), Sulayman (ruled 1666-1694) and Sultan Hasayn (ruled

1694-1722).

In 1587, Shah Abbas I (the Great, 1587-1629) defeated the Uzbeks in Herat and

Qandahar (now Afghanistan) and named the southern Iraqi city of Isfahan as the capital. The land saw good economic growth under the rule of Abbas I. Also in 1603, the Ottoman rule in

Tabriz and Azerbaijan was quashed.

33

17th century Safavid rule, Map courtesy Lapidus.

Soltan Hosein (ruled 1694-1722) lost the capital of Isfahan in 1722 to Mir Mahmud, the leader of the Ghilzai Afghans of Qandahar. The new Afghan rulers had a hard time keeping a grip on the area, and a civil war erupted between of the Afghans and Nader Khan Afshar of the Safavids.

King Mahmud’s forces led to the end of Hosein’s rule. In 1717, Mahmud (ruled 1722-

1725), son of Mir Wais Hotaki, murdered his uncle to claim the title of governor in Qandahar, and in 1719, invaded Persia. On October 23, 1722, Mir Mahmud conquered Hosein’s forces in

Isfahan, ending the Safavid Dynasty. During the invasion, Mahmud murdered nobles and princes of the throne. A few years later, the Ottomans and Russians signed a treaty to divide Iran’s northwestern provinces (1724). Mir Mahmud was succeeded by Ashraf, his cousin, after he was killed in 1725. Also in 1725, the Russians landed in Gilan and Baku, but when Czar Peter the

34 Great died, they withdrew. In 1726, the Ottomans attacked for control but were defeated by the

Afghans near the city of Hamadan.

The Afghans were in power until 1789, when Agha Mohammed Khan crowned himself

Shahanshah of Iran as the first of the Kajar Dynasty (Qajar in some texts). The Kajar were in power until the early 20th century, but began to crumble in part due to increasing European power in Asia. Mozaffar al-Din Shah (ruled 1896-1907) began racking up debts to Russian and

European banks, and soon the land had several different groups controlling different sections.

The British held most of the oil rights in the south, M. Naus, a Belgian, was named Minister of

Customs and Minister of Finance, and Russian officers commanded the only armed force around, the Persian Cossack Brigade.

This instability set the stage for the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, and this new group tried to rid Iran of czarist power. Britain proposed a treaty in 1919 to put Iran under British control, but the democrats of Azarbaijan and the Jangalis of Gilan voiced dissent over the issue, and Russia even sent troops to Gilan to re-enforce the anti-British faction. This commotion led to the treaty never being ratified. Two years later, in 1921, Russia and Iran signed a treaty that canceled the debt Iran had racked up, and agreed that Iran was not to be used as a position to attack the Soviets. Russia then withdrew its troops from Gilan. The Jangalis fell in December

1921 and Reza Khan rose to power.

Reza Khan (ruled 1925-1941) was a leader who relatively humble origins. He joined the

Persian Cossack Brigade in 1893, and was named Brigadier General in 1918. In 1925, he was proclaimed Shah of Iran and changed his name to Reza Shah Pahlavi. Under him, the University of Tehran was founded, and the Trans-Iranian Railway was completed, and in 1935, the name of the country was changed from Persia to Iran. World War II brought Russian and British soldiers

35 to Iran, and in 1941, Reza Khan fell from power. His son, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, ruled as

Shah until 1979.

More recently, in 1979, an Iranian revolution placed emphasis once again on the close tie between church and state. Millions of mostly unarmed Iranians took to the streets to remove the

Shah from power, which they were successful in doing. Religious clergy, with Ayatollah

Khomeini leading, established Islamic rule. Since then, Iran’s Islamic government has spread much anti-American sentiment, often referring to the United States as the “Great Satan”, and the former Soviet Union as “Little Satan”. As of this writing, Iran and the United States still do not share diplomatic relations.

36 Persian Culture

The Arab invasions of Persia in the 7th century completely changed the cultural

atmosphere. During the reign of the Sasanians (224-651), there were three version of the Persian language. Parsi (Pahlavi, or Middle Persian) is the main language. A dialect of Parsi, Dari, was present in Iran, as was another offshoot dialect of Dari. Under the fifth Umayyad Caliphate, Abd al-Malik (ruled 685-705), the Persian language was abolished and Arabic was adopted, and Parsi fell out of official use. Arabic would become the official language, but Persian was still be used by the general populace and resurfaced a few hundred years later.

The Umayyad Dynasty following the Rule of the Rightly Guided saw the birth of Islamic Art. Satirical poetry existed with two notable writers worthy of mention: al-Akhtal and Farazdaq of Jarír. The Udhrite poems written by Jamíl also attest to the presence of early

Persian love songs. Texts speak of “camel poetry”, describing a form of writing dealing with old subject matter, and using the pre-Islamic vocabulary. The intellectual authors of the time would also lay the foundations for the studies of theology, jurisprudence and philosophy from the cultural focal points of Mecca and Medina.

Prior to Arabic rule, the predominant religion of Persia was the Zoroastrian faith. This gave way to Islam in the 7th century. The Muslim faith can be divided into three versions. The

first, the , believed that Muslim sinners were thus unbelievers (kāfirs) and must suffer legal consequences. Second, the Muri’ites believed that the sinners were to be dealt with by God, and it was not man’s responsibility to punish. The Mu’tazilites were a cross between the two, meaning a fāsiq (impious; sinner) was not a Muslim or a kāfir, but could repent to redeem oneself.

37 The Abbasid Empire marks an important time for Persia because of the formation of a

new language, New Persian. Since the advent of Islam, Arabic had been the main language of

royalty and official documents. In the Abbasid Empire, we can identify two cultural zones:

Arabic in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and western Iran, and Persian in eastern Iran. The Persian literary

developments in Khurasan, Sijistan, and Transoxiana in the helped push the Persian

language’s usage. In the years 820-873, the Tahirid governors of Khurasan opted to have Persian

written with Arabic characters instead of Pahlavi, and the East Iranian lords expressed interest in court poetry written in Dari using Arabic verse forms. Rudaki (d 940) was a poet who many

times is referred to as the “Father of New Persian”, but the real explosion of the new language can be credited to Firdausi (d 1020) with the New Persian epic poem “Shāh-nāma”. After this poem was written, the usage of the New Persian language was greatly increased and helped to weed out the multiple dialects that had spawned.

Nearly all of Persia had embraced Islam by the time of the rule of the Buyids, Samanids, and Ghaznavids (8th – 11th centuries). Poets such as Rūdakí (d 940), Daqíqí (d 980) and Bò

Dónğŝ (d 1011) wrote in New Persian, which survives today, differing from its inception only in its acquisition of some Arabic words, since they share the same character sets.

The latter half of the Abbasid Caliphate also sees advances in the creation of art. From the nearby cities of Baghdad and Samarra (“He who sees it rejoices”) the Arabesque technique of beveled surfaces emerges in Persian architecture. Popular in woodwork, metalwork, and pottery are geometric and vegetal patterns, while pottery gets some jazz with the creation of luster technique, a post-glaze process that results in a glittery effect like metal. Adorning the Palace of

Jawsaq al-Khanqani (built 836) and the Mosque of al-Mutawakkil (built 848) are the geometric and vegetal patterns that had recently entered the culture.

38 11th century Iranian architects used primitive building supplies such as brick and stucco

with geometric and vegetal patterns for large dwellings. One century later, a new form of Iranian

mosque was developed. Previously, Arab mosques were built around colonnaded courtyards. The

new Iranian mosques used a courtyard surrounded by arcades as a base, built up with brick and a

large dome atop it all. The largest arcade was always the one pointing in the direction of Mecca.

Asian elements infiltrated Persian culture in the 13th century with the Mongol invasion of

1256. Dragons and phoenixes entered various arts, representing earthly strength, superior

wisdom, eternal life, and the cosmic force. These ideas clashed with the Muslim ideas of heavenly strength, and the belief that only God has ultimate wisdom, but the semi-nomadic

Mongols spread their art mainly though textiles and popularized the art form. The djeiran, a deer that is gazing at the moon, was a widespread icon that showed up in many art forms such as paintings, manuscripts, and pottery.

Maragha, Tabriz and Baghdad were settled by the Mongols at a time when paper and textiles were more commonly available than before. Higher quality paper was used, and beautiful manuscripts were created with a distinctly greater number of illustrations than previous

Persian literature for royalty. Belts made of precious metals were also very popular at this time,

expressing one’s wealth.

One of the great mystic writers of the time is Jalāl al-Dín Rūmī (1207 – 1273) who wrote

in Persian, but was only indirectly under Il-khan rule at his home in the court of Seljuks of Rūm.

“Masnauí” was his greatest accomplishment, an epic poem largely compared with Firdausi’s

“Shāh-nāma”.

The 16th century began to see an economic boom due to Armenian merchants and foreign

travelers that led to an increase in single paintings with fewer large manuscripts being produced.

39 Major cultural change took place in the 17th century in the time of the Safavids. Riza Abbasi

(1565 – 1635), a painter under Shah Abbas, introduced semi-nude women and lovers in his art

that replaced many “Shāh-nāma” heroes that once adorned paintings, textiles and other media.

Large wall paintings graced the walls of the Chihil Sutun Palace under the reign of Abbas II

(ruled 1642 – 1666).

Persian Battle Tactics

Prior to the Arab takeover in the 7th century, the Persians of the Sasanian empire (224-

651) had already established tactics and practices of war superior to their invaders, but still could

not defend against the larger Arab armies. Persians gawked at the practices of the Arabs, notably

the absence of saddles and stirrups on horses in battle. If an Arab were to attack with a spear or

shaft, the stirrups would greatly increase the amount of power behind the thrust by allowing the soldier to stand up. Arabs used solid shafts, while the Persians knew that a hollow shaft would be

lighter, easier to handle, and would provide a more powerful strike (Lewis, 34). The Persian

armies knew more of night attacks, ambushes, and battle formations; the right and left wings,

center and flank lines, a vanguard and a rearguard, scouts, and pioneers. Due to the successes of

the Arab armies in the 7th century, the Arab armies felt little immediate need or desire to adopt

the tactics of their fallen enemies, but would begin to transform after a few centuries by the

influences surrounding and interacting with them.

Under Caliph ‘Umar I (ruled 634-644) the Arab army numbered over 50,000, and around

700, at the height of the Umayyad empire, there were over 100,000 soldiers. Relatively

40 unorganized in battle, soldiers would form lines on the field, distinguished by the weapons being used; first, the javelin and lance lines would hang back, and then the swordmen would assume the front position for closer ranged attacks, and the two would switch off (Holt, 824). The main weapons of the Arab army consisted of javelins (harbas), lances (rumhs) and swords (sayfs) for close combat. Bows (qaws) were also popular, but the Arabs would not show exemplary skill with them until their contact with the Persians and Turks. For defense, they used shields

(daraqas), mail (dirc), helmets (khūdhas) and cvirasses (tarīkas). Soldiers’ pay came from plunder (ghanīma) and from allowances (‘atā’), which would be between 500 and 1000 dirhams per annum for a low ranking soldier (Holt, 661). One dirham is equivalent to 3.0 grams of pure silver, or about $0.59 in U.S. dollars presently ( http://www.kitco.com/market/us_charts.html ), for a yearly salary of about $300-$600.

The amīr was the general in charge of a campaign, whose title would change to an amīr al-umarā under the Abbasid Caliphate. Eighth to 11th century generals would keep a special flag, called a liwā, mounted outside their tents during encampment. Under the general, separate corps of soldiers existed and were usually divided in one of three ways. Dividing troops according to tribal allegiance or ethnic origin was one way to separate men and boost morale. Sometimes, however, dependence on a general for a specific task or mission would create a corps of soldiers of mixed origins. The most popular way to group soldiers however, was by their function in battle. It was common practice to group swordsmen with swordsmen and archers with archers, since their weapons dictated their position on the battlefield in relation to the enemy. Each of these corps, however divided, carried their own unique flags (rāyas) and dressed alike, but did not have issued uniforms (Holt, 829).

41 Many supplies were necessary to support huge movements of troops. Travel was a slow

process for the foot soldiers and heavily weighed-down camels carrying supplies. Herds of

animals were brought to feed the troops, which slowed them down as well. The welfare of the animals depended greatly on the chosen site of encampment. To survive, the herds required the

troops to settle in areas with pasture. Equally necessary for the army’s survival was a campsite

near a source of water. The day of a traveling group would start at dawn, and by noon a site

would be chosen and the unpacking started. If the stay were to be an extended one, Persians

would encircle the camp with a moat (khandaq), placing the general at the center, surrounded by

concentric rings of separate corps of troops. During the summer months, soldiers lived in tents,

but wood shelters were erected during the winter months if time and resources allowed.

The latter half of the Abbasid era (12th - 13th centuries) saw a rise in the number of slaves

who traded military service in exchange for their freedom. This was partly due to the economic

decline of the time. The Caliphate was having a hard time paying the soldiers, building machines

and weapons, and outfitting slaves, an added expense where most soldiers could afford their own

arms and armor. To deal with the financial difficulties, the Persian authorities began reducing

taxation in areas that contributed men and supplies. This didn't solve the problem and military

protection was broken up into separate jurisdictions, to be overseen by a single amīr and

financially supported by the citizens of the region (Holt, 832)..

As of the 13th century, weapons of war had not changed much and were essentially

technology of the Persian Sasanid empire. Combat was fought with the standard lances, swords,

and the increasingly popular bow and arrow. Gunpowder was invented in the 13th century in Asia but Persians would not capitalize on the new discovery until the 15th century.

42 The Turkish mangonel (manjanīq) was a large weapon adopted by the Persians that

would allow some soldiers to fight their enemies from afar rather than in hand-to-hand combat.

The mangonel had a large beam suspended by ropes that would swing down and strike a projectile; any large, heavy object that was available, either a rock or a large piece of wood.

Projectiles were also hurled from the great 'arrādas, which relied on the tension of ropes for the forward thrust of the ammunition (Holt, 831). Around 1200, a large crossbow machine that required the hands of multiple soldiers was introduced, called a qaws al-ziyār. These weapons were particularly useful for attacks on heavily guarded fortresses, where blows from large projectiles could wear away a fortress wall and multiple bows could take out many soldiers at once. When a fortress could not be taken by conventional means, Persians used a technique known as mining (naqb). Mining was where soldiers would tunnel under the outskirts of the fortress, hollow out the earth under the fortress walls, and replace the dirt with weak beams.

Soon, the weight of the walls would break the beams and the entire wall would crumble (Holt,

831).

Persian ruler Uzan Husan (died 1478) was the first king to see the use of gunpowder weapons in the Persian army. These included small guns and pistols, and by 1506, the cannon

(tūp) and Ottoman arquebus (tufang) brought considerably more power to the battlefield than was available before the Timurid Dynasty. During the Safavid rule (1501-1722) gunpowder would begin to play an important and essential role in warfare. Cannons were used to repeatedly bombard sections of fortress walls until they fell, and the arquebus was a gun with a much longer barrel than most weapons that could shoot from 500 to 600 paces with crude accuracy.

The Safavid army was instituted by Shah Ismā'īl I (died 1524), including some soldiers and warriors of Turkish tribes from Anatolia. The hierarchies of the Turkish tribes were not

43 disrupted, thus leaders retained their positions of authority. The Safavid armies divided their

troops into corps according to their function in battle. Three major categories segregated the

soldiers. The first were the arquebusiers, who fired upon the enemy using the long barreled gun

of Ottoman origin. Falling under the second classification were the artillerists, who fired

cannonballs at the opposing army's forces. The third group were the horsemen, who fired arrows

and used pistols and other small firearms. An army that relied completely on ammunition-based

weapons would most certainly lose if they could not reach supplies, so everyone carried the

traditional meleé weapons in case they needed to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Shah Abbas II’s army (ruled 1642-1666) numbered around 25,000 for protecting an

empire of 40 million people. Twelve thousand men were footsoldiers, twelve thousand made up

the cavalry, there were approximately 600 zeiziarees, and 200 Suffees, who operated as

bodyguards to the Shah (Fraser, 216).

The Persian army was in decline by the 18th and 19th centuries. The military engineers

were not experiencing many new breakthroughs and the artillerists had a poor showing of both

numbers and skill in the field (Holt, 850). Also, the Persians found it difficult to transport all of the large weapons like cannons, while the Ottomans had solved the problem by melting down the weapons, carrying smaller pieces of the metal across many people and camels, and recasting the large weapons when they were going to attack.

44 Persian Arms

Early Persian weapons can be hard to study because few artifacts exist before the 10th century. Many times parts of swords, like the grip and the blade, need replacing, so some examples actually come from two or more times or places of origin because parts were swapped.

Also, sometimes a single maker’s name was used to identify weapons across several hundred years, so we know that some are more of a “brand name” than the signature of its actual maker.

Also, most of the weapons that have been recovered and studied are the most expensive of all the weapons found. The vast majority of the soldiers had more modest weapons that were much less durable. Lastly, trade between Persia and India was so common that the two shared many characteristics in weapon design, and are commonly referred to as Indo-Persian.

Close-up of watered steel.

Watered steel was by far the most esteemed material for a Persian blade. A raw material called “wootz” came in large, flat cakes. A skilled metalworker would forge the blade in high-

45 carbon ingots from the wootz. The result is a wispy, watery look from the dark lines (carbon) against the lighter lines (iron carbide). To enhance the contrast, the surface was then etched with acid, and colors were made possible using different chemicals. Steel was a major product in

Persia because of the huge iron resources in Fars, Qutruh, Masula, Tabriz, and the Elburz

Mountains. Watered steel was also an excellent material for blades because it could be sharpened to a very fine edge (Coe, 110).

False-damascening (koftgari) was a very popular technique that would relatively inexpensively turn a modest piece into royal, glimmering masterpiece. First, extremely thin gold and silver ribbons would be pounded onto a cross-hatched, engraved surface. The surface would then be flooded with chemicals that blued and darkened the metal, enhancing the

HAM#2415, Gold false-damascening (koftgari) on javelin head, , 18th century. contrast of the precious metals (Coe, 112). The problem was that the silver and gold would sometimes wear off with use, and rusting could wear it off as well. A more expensive but superior approach was “true damascening”. The weaponsmith would chisel away a design, and then hammer silver or gold wire into the depression. Considerable skill was required to do this well, and the larger amount of precious metals increased the cost, so this was reserved for soldiers with a lot of money.

46

Swords

HAM#321.b, wood and leather Persian Scabbard, 18th century.

Persian-made swords were highly prized throughout the Islamic world because of their high quality and beautiful designs. 7th century swords had wooden grips that were covered with

leather and quillons made simply of a cross with langets near the front of the grip and the face of

the blade. Langets ran from the hilt up the blade to strengthen the weapon. Quillons were the separating the hilt from the blade, and were in place to protect the soldiers’ wrists and hands (Stone, 330). One blade of the time was particularly famous, the ‘Dhu’l-Faqar’, a cloven blade that the Prophet Mohammed wielded at the Battle of Nadr (642) and that many

Islamic warriors’ banners depicted (Coe, 110).

The components of a Persian Shamshir, common to many blade weapons, Courtesy of Stone.

One of the oldest recovered Persian blades was discovered in Nishapur, dating back to

the 9th century. The blade was slightly curved and relatively narrow, and the guard had palmette

terminals. The scabbard that was recovered had bronze mounts for reinforcement, and a flap or

47 bronze at the top, a characteristic of some Sasanian weapons (Coe, 111). The 8th and 9th centuries were the first to see curved blades on Persian swords.

The “Shāh-nāma” (Book of Kings, 11th century) defined the Persian style of weaponry,

popularizing several aesthetic and functional characteristics. In line with previous tradition, the

grips were made of either ivory or bone, with gilt mounts. The flat pommel were made of

engraved gold, and the was large and flat, with projections coming down the hilt and

blade. Pommel caps are the “weight” at the butt of any weapon, whether it be a sword, , hilt,

or pistol (Stone, 323) Grips were affixed using riveted plaques, and tapered on the end near the

pommels. The scabbard was square near the bottom and reinforced for strength with metal

supports. One major design change that would be prevalent for centuries was the curved blade

(North, 30).

Manuscript illustrations of the 13th century depicted the scimitar, a blade with a wide point at the end. Persian swords have been found with terminals of chiseled dragons’ heads, a

result of the Mongol influences of the time.

One of the most prized of all Persian weaponry was the shamshir (“curved like the tiger’s tail”) which appeared in the 14th century. Swords intended primarily for cutting and slashing,

these curved watered steel blades were sharp on the convex edge of the blade, for a somewhat

circular drawcut. had curved blades that were shaped like the motion of a person’s

arm, giving the largest cut (Stone, 551) and some examples are shown in Figure 11. The blades

were not usually decorated that much, bearing the maker’s name and the date occasionally, and

rarely with carvings or enamel inlays. The hilts of shamshirs were characteristically curved at the

very end, were relatively simply decorated, and had a single crossguard with one pommel.

Embossed leather was used quite often for the scabbard construction, with chiseled steel

48 mountings for aesthestics. The Persian shamshir was popular not only throughout its homeland, but in Turkey and India as well.

Persian shamshirs, dates unknown, Courtesy of Stone.

Persians began to more intricately decorate their weapons by the 15th century. Blades of all types, either daggers, swords, or lances, were all decorated with chiseling. It was customary for a maker to chisel their name on the back. Poetic verses could be written with gold on the blade for a wealthy soldier.

The late 17th century also saw a shift in the style of Persian sword. Prior to then, swords had broad, heavy blades, decorated with a linear watering style. After, most blades were made lighter, with stronger blade curvature, and a denser watering scheme. This is a popular rule of thumb to try to date pieces, since grips and pommels were replaced so much that they cannot be used to determine a weapon’s true age.

49 Daggers From the 15th century came one of the oldest known Persian daggers today. It was made

out of steel, and had a chiseled hilt. Also depicted were dragons, birds, and kylins amongst

foliage (North, 31). The blade is short, double edged, and curved with etched grooves running

the length. The accompanying scabbard was finished with ray skin, with lengthy chiseled steel

chapes at both ends. Verses and arabesques adorned many Persian daggers of this time, inlaid

with gold, silver, or chiselling. The weapon hilts were mostly made of steel or wood, but some

were made of intricately carved jade.

Shown below is a double-edged Persian from the 20th century. The hilt was made

of wood, and the pommel was crafted with the rounded design common to many Islamic

weapons.

HAM#3770.a, Persian Dagger, 20th Century.

There also existed a popular shorter dagger, the . The kard had a watered steel blade, and the grip was constructed of two pieces of ivory or bone, fastened with rivets. The blade was straight, single edged, with a flat back. The hilts were made of jade, rock crystals, and in some instances, onyx. Some of the most precious examples had precious stones mounted inside gold flowers on the dagger. Prior to 1600, most crossguards were terminated with spatulate quillons, whereas post-1600 crossguards would terminate simply with turned knobs (North, 34).

50 HAM#3769.a, Persian Jambiya Dagger with silver and gold koftgari, 19th century.

HAM#3769.b Persian Jambiya Scabbard with red velvet, 19th century.

The pash-kabz dagger’s name translates to “foregrip”. This simple dagger’s blade is as wide as the hilt at the base, and then tapers to half this width rather quickly, and then gradually tapers to a point at the tip of the blade. The top edge of the blade is straight, but reverse curvature was not uncommon. The hilt was constructed out of walrus ivory, and was rather heavy considering it did not have a guard or a pommel. The main intent of the pash-kabz, like most daggers, was as a secondary combat weapon to the sword, but uncommon to some was the mail- piercing ability for which it was designed.

Guns Trade with India brought the first matchlock guns to Persia in the 16th century. Persian guns, early in their development, were narrower and longer than their Turkish counterparts, and thus more appealing to Indian merchants (North, 36). The darbzan was a popular Persian gun in the 17th century (Holt, 835).

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Persians made their guns with barrels of watered steel, which Indian and Asian merchants were very fond of (North, 36). Barrels came in two varieties; round and octagonal, and were decorated with chiseling and damascening. They had deep, straight rifling and had a flange welded to one side of the breech. Persians were also very good at

51 calligraphy, and the maker’s signature many time appeared on the top of the barrel, which were

attached to the stock with ‘capucines’ of various precious metals.

Persian gunmakers also made a shorter version of their popular rifles, called a short

carbine. These guns used balltriggers. Smaller pistols had wooden stocks, and used flintocks or

percussion locks.

Prior to the 15th century, guns were fired by holding a burning wick up the barrel to ignite the firing powder. This made it difficult to fire the weapon, as one arm was used to aim, one to

light the wick, and the gun was steadied with another object, such as a rock. The first major

advancement in gumaking occurred in the 15th century, with the introduction of the matchlock.

This design had a burning wick or match at the end of a moving arm, which would slam down into the powder when the trigger was pulled. This greatly increased the ease of use of the weapon, as well at the accuracy of the shooter.

The early 16th century saw the invention of the wheel lock, a German advancement. The

advantage over the matchlock mechanism was the lack of a burning object. Instead, a rough wheel could be rotated against flint or pyrites, generating the spark mechanically. The spark would project up to the bottom of the flashpan, where the powder was stored. This wheel lock was certainly a step up from the match lock, but the fact that it cost about twice as much kept the match lock in popular use.

52

HAM#3703, Persian flintlock gun, steel, wood with ivory, brass, 18th century.

Flintlocks were introduced in the 17th century, an invention of the Spanish, and reached

Persia in the 18th.. Here, a piece of flint would be struck against a piece of steel. A wave of sparks would fall into the flashpan, firing the weapon. Shown above is a Persian gun with a flintlock mechanism, which has been enlarged.

Percussion locks would come to replace all other forms of firing mechanism for guns in the 19th century. Here, a would be loaded with the firing powder, and a hammer would strike it, creating the explosive power. Not only was this method of firing much quicker than its predecessors, but the cap containing the powder could now be waterproofed.

53 Persian Armor

One of the only pieces of evidence available today about the armor of the pre-Islamic

Persians was a soldier unearthed in 1932. At Dura Europas, beneath a tower, this soldier died in

256 A.D. A shirt of mail, hip length with short sleeves was found on the skeleton, with a

rectangular shield of cane for defense. Nearby the corpse was a thimble-shaped . These

findings, as well as other evidence, show that the Persian art of armor making did not change

greatly with the advent of Islam.

Rock carvings dating to the early 7th century show Tāq-i-Bōstān of Khusru II (c. 620

A.D) as a clibanaruis, a part of the Sasanian heavy cavalry, mounted on a horse and ready for

battle. The pictures show a shirt of mail, a rounded helmet with spherical crest, with a veil of mail extending down from the rim of the helmet. His is protected by lamellar armor, an armor made of many pieces of either hardened leather or metal. The Islamic influence did not affect the

Persians much, as they already had superior techniques for the items of war. Persian craftsmanship and style was adopted rather than quashed by the Islamic invaders.

54 HAM#356, Helmet, Persian 19th

century,.

The most prevalent type of Persian helmet was

the kulah khud. The top of the helmet was

round, had a removable nasal section, and had a

neckguard of mail that extended down from the

rim. The mail guard had an open section in the

front for visibility, and the sides would extend

down around the shoulders to reach small

points. The mail was usually open-linked, but

some of the more expensive ones had riveted.

The top would sometimes have a spike, and

plume holders were popular in the front,

usually one for each side of the face (Stone,

175). Occasionally, the mail would be decorated with patterns of copper or brass links.

Engravings of gold and silver were also popular on the bowl section of the helmet.

Another type of helmet was the kulah zirah. The helmet was made of small plates of metal, some of which were attached using links of mail. The versions using mail had open hoods with a round plate for a , and possibly a plume holder. Like the kulah khud, kulah zirahs would sometimes have removable nasal bars, or a removable, triangular piece of mail that could be used to cover the face. The 15th century saw Persian helmets decorated with not only plumes,

but jewels and pennants as well (The pennants were heavily influenced by the Mongol presence).

55

HAM#1276, Persian zirah baktah century, iron with leather, HAM#1276, 17th century.

The zirah baktah was an Indo-Persian coat of mail, evident in Rashidu’d Din’s “History

of the World” (1312) (Robinson, 27). The size and weight of this mail varied a lot. Also varying

were the lengths, where some had short sleeves, while others had long sleeves and the mail could

extend down as far as the knee. There were usually small plates adorning the front and back,

which can be seen above.

Mail could be produced a few different ways. First, the rings may be open linked,

meaning a (nearly) complete circle was punched out of the metal, the rings were interlinked, and

pounded closed. Riveting the mail was a time consuming process that led to more durable mail.

Here, nearly complete circles are punched out, the rather than simply pounding it closed, a hold was cut in both sides of the broken circle. A pin was inserted through to secure the link, the pin

56 was cut, and whatever was left was pounded flat. Still another form of mail consisted of alternating rings with rings that had a bar across the diameter. Each link would be connected to four others of the different type, but none like itself. This type is known as “bar-link”, or “theta” mail, since the rings with the bar resembled the Greek letter theta (θ).

Theta mail, Courtesy of Stone.

The bazuband, or vambrace, was the protection that Indian, Turkish, and Persian soldiers wore to protect their forearms. The bazuband was a curved piece of metal that extended from the elbow to the wrist. This was fastened to two narrow wrist plates by mail, or was hinged to a short plate that provided protection for the inside of the wrist. The hand was protected by a gauntlet that was attached to the arm plate. Prior to the 15th century, Persian bazubands were long and round at the end, with a lengthwise curvature. After the 15th century, Persian soldiers would usually don one bazuband; if the soldier was on horseback, the bridle hand was protected, and if the soldier was on foot, the bazuband was used on the sword hand. Shown below is an 18th

57 century bazuband. The arm plate is made of iron and steel with a silver inlay of animals, birds and vines, while the gauntlet is a combination of leather and silk.

HAM#3092.6 a&b, Persian bazuband iron and steel, 18th century,.

Also protecting a soldier’s chest were the char-aina, which translates to “The four mirrors” (also means torso armor). This was a combination of four plates that were worn over a shirt of mail in Persia and India. They were generally rectangular, with one for the front, one for the back, and one each for the sides. The two side pieces’ tops were cut away to allow free arm movement, and if the front was large enough, its top would also be cut away, not to interfere

58 with the soldier’s helmet. The pieces on the sides were usually smaller than the front and back

pieces. If the pieces were not rectangular, the other form was octagonal, one which did not cover

as much mail. The char-aina was hung by shoulder straps, which were sometimes crossed to offer better stability (Stone, 175). The figure below shows a char-aina of Persian origin.

HAM#3092.4.3, Char-aina (torso armor), 18th century,.

59

Set of Persian char-aina, 17th century, steel, Courtesy of Stone.

Knee plates either set in mail or cloth would help to protect the legs, and boots were worn on the feet. However, some pieces of armor show two plates, hinged together, that work to protect the shins and calves. Lamellar armor was popular until the 15th century, armor than

consisted of securing many pieces of metal or leather together to create

a contiguous barrier. After the 15th century, laminate armor became

much more common, which is a combination of many layers of metals.

Boot of mail and plates, Persian 15th century, Courtesy Robinson.

60

HAM#2419, Leg armor iron with gold inlay, riveted mail, 17th century

While two major types of shield exist, the Persian developed a cross between the two.

The first type is a buckler, one with handles in the center of the back, intended to be held with one hand. A target shield, on the other hand, had two major handles, where the arm was slid

through one and the hand grasped the second handle. Many Persian shields actually have 3

handles, so it can be used as either a buckler or a target. Shown below is an example of one of

these. The shield is made of steel and gold, while the handles in the back are a combination of

leather and fabric.

61

HAM#1452, Persian buckler/target (front & back), 19th century.

62 Arabia

History Pre-Islamic Era

The Arabian Peninsula, once thought to have been a fertile land, was the probable home

of early Semitic people. Believed to be the land where the Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians

and the Ancient Hebrews migrated from, the peninsula eventually became a giant desert,

outlined with habitable land only along the coasts with the occasional sparse, cultivatable steppe

inland. This Winckler-Caetani theory is the most popular but one of many theories of the early

Arabian Peninsula.

In Ancient Arabia, there were two main regions in which the Arabs settled. In the al-

Hijaz and region, there were the North Arabians who were nomads and hunters living in

portable or makeshift homes. Their language would become that of the Qur’an (Koran) but they would not become prominent until the advent of Islam. In the al-Yaman region, there were the

South Arabians who were sedentary and relied on agriculture for survival. They spoke an ancient Semitic language, possibly Sabaean or Himyarite. Chronological history of Ancient

Arabia is nebulous, although one of the earliest dominant kingdoms is that of Saba.

Saba is the earliest of many Arabian kingdoms in record. It is “perhaps identical with the

Biblical Sheba whose queen entered into relations with King Solomon”(Lewis p. 24), though speculations estimate that the Sabaean Kingdom could date back as early as 10,000 B.C Located near what is today known as Yemen, this kingdom was prominent between 750 B.C. and 115

B.C. Their success was much owed to the bottleneck trading routes established between the civilizations from Rome, , the Persian Gulf, India, and China. The profitable Sabaean

Kingdom would fall when Ptolemy II of Egypt decides to reopen a sea route (ca 250 B.C.) from

63 the Nile to the Red Sea. This was a much cheaper route for Rome and Egypt to trade with those

in East Asia.

When the Saba Kingdom conducted its re-export of goods along the land , the

Minaean Kingdom also flourished. Believed to be established around 400 B.C., this kingdom at

its peak ruled much of South Arabia mainly in al-Yaman. The name of the kingdom was

originally known as Ma’an but was later changed to Ma’in which means “spring water”. The

Minaeans too spoke the same language as their fellow Sabaeans but in a different dialect.

Two other states also came to light. Qataban is located east of ‘Adan, and Hadramawt lies where it is today. Qataban with its capital Tamna, lasted between 400-50 B.C. Hadramawt with its capital Shabwah lasted between 400 B.C. to end of the 1st century A.D. Much is not

known about the inhabitants of these lands except that they did come under Sabaean and

Minaean rule though their inscriptions could be found from North Arabia to Ethiopia.

In 115 B.C. the south of the Arabian Peninsula would be ruled by the kingdom of

Himyar. The Himyarites were observed by the Roman scholar and naturalist, Gaius Plinius

Secundus, otherwise known as Pliny. The Himyarites were closely related to the Sabaeans and

the . They spoke the same language and carried on their culture. The Himyarite capital

of Zafar replaced both the Mar’ib and Qarnaw capitals of the old Sabaean and Manaean

kingdoms. Ruled by a monarchy, their king often appeared on coins. The best known were

Shammar Yar’ash, abu-Karib As’ad Kamil, and Abi-kariba As’ad who eventually conquered the

Persians though these mighty kings were not able to uphold their kingdom forever.

The Abyssinians from Africa, after many repeated attempts to take South Arabia from the

Himyarites, finally succeeded in 525 A.D. led by their , Abrahah. They brought with

64 them the influence and religion of Christianity. The Abyssinians were determined to convert the land to their faith from paganism. In an effort to drive the southern region of Arabia, i.e. al-

Yaman, from their African rulers, a man by the name of Sayf ibn-dhi-Yazan sought outside help.

Help was sought by two sides, the Christian Arabs who looked towards Byzantine

Constantinople and the Jewish and pagan Arabs who looked toward the Persian capital of

Ctesiphon. Then in 575 A.D., the Persian Army came into al-Yaman and pushed out the

Abyssinians. Thus was the history of South Arabia where the Arabs were under Persian rule until the coming of Islam.

The history of North Arabia starts with the Nabataen Kingdom. These people originated from nomadic tribes that came from what is known today as the . With its capital of

Petra, the Nabata flourished because of its key location on the caravan trade route between Saba and the Mediterranean Sea. Though the kingdom seemed to be under heavy Hellenistic influence, their first major foreign contact was with the Romans in 65 B.C. Roman-Nabataean relations started off in peace with the Arabs acting as a sort of buffer state between Eastern

Roman settlements through the expansive deserts and eventually ending in Southern Arabia.

Aelius Gallus of Rome used the as a launching state for his invasion to overtake al-Yaman so that Rome would have control of the trade route to India.

65

Arabian Trade Routes

The Nabataean Kingdom was subdued after the caravan trade route was diverted towards

Palmyra. As the kingdom deteriorated because of a lack of economical influence, Rome made

Petra part of its empire in 106 A.D.

66 Islamic Era The cornerstone of Arab history, culture, and influence was greatly influened by the

Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad, a direct descendant of and , was born into

the Qosaiy tribe. His parents died when he was a child, and he spent a good part of his early life with his uncle, Abu Talib a trade merchant. It was during his stay with his uncle that

Muhammad acknowledged the divinity of one God. He attained this from a Christian monk by the name of Bahira while on a caravan trip with his uncle. In 612 A.D., Muhammad received a message from the archangel Gabriel to spread the word of God. “So, calling his faith after the

Arabic word for submission (to God) - Islam – and his followers Moslems, from the word for

one who submits, he proclaimed to the citizens of Mecca that God was one, the all-powerful

creator of the universe…” (Hitti p. 19).

The death of Muhammad in 632 A.D. brought a crisis to the Muslims. When Muhammad

died, he did not leave any word of a successor nor were there any procedures in determining one.

No consideration was brought to his only child, who was his daughter, . There exists the

controversial caliphs whose rule over the Islamic nations is still disputed to this day.

The Arabs eventually agreed upon a course of action. There would be an election of a

Khalifa, meaning “deputy”, Caliph written English and so started the reign of the Rule of the

Rightly Guided Caliphs. The first was Abu Bakr, whose main base was in the city of Medina.

The Caliph assumed not only political leadership and power but also military. With Abu Bakr,

started the war of the Ridda, which was aimed to eliminate or convert those who did not

recognize the Caliph’s authority. Abu Bakr sent his key general, Khalid ibn al-Walid, for his

military operations. The Arabian conquest did not really start until the Battle of Aqraba in 633

67 A.D near Eastern Najd. The significance of this battle proved to the Caliph the strength of the

Medinese government and the frailty and submissiveness of those conquered. The expansion of

the Arabian Empire therefore commenced.

The Arab armies swept across the Arabian Peninsula and eventually crossed arms with

the Byzantines. In July of 636 A.D., the Byzantines lost Syria and Palestine to the Arabs.

Khalid was recalled to be replaced with Abu Ubaida, an administrator, to set up government in

Syria. Their next target was Iraq which was held by the Persians. In 637 A.D., the Persians were

defeated at Qadisiya. The Arabs soon took the Persian capital of Ctesiphon and with this, the

Caliph controlled Iraq. The conquest would lead into the Fertile of Mesopotania to

secure the North.

The Egyptian conquest was not of interest to the Caliph, but he was swayed by one of his

generals, Amr ibn al-As. Capturing Egypt was not difficult as the , those who resided in

Egypt at the time, were opposed to their Greek rulers and opted to help the Arabians. Amr went to Cairo and defeated the Byzantines in July 640 A.D. A treaty with the Copts secured Egypt for the Arabs and the withdrawal of Byzantines.

After Umar’s murder, Uthman ibn Affan came into rule as his successor. Before he died,

Umar set up a Shura, i.e. an electoral college, to determine the next Caliph if another incident of his case were to happen. Internal disputes about the Caliph showed the deterioration of the

Caliph system. Those who resented Uthman were nomadic Arabs who disliked centralized control. They “retained a nomadic conception of authority which regarded obedience as a voluntary offering to an individual” (Lewis p. 60). On June 17, 656 members of the Arab army from Egypt came to Medina and murdered Uthman, their leader.

68 The last of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad’s cousin and son- in-law, then came to power. Speculations that he supported the death of Uthman started to tarnish his image, but he still retained loyal supporters known as the Shi’ites. Though Ali was successful in suppressing his opponents, namely the most famous being the Battle of the Camel, he was ultimately assassinated in 661 A.D. Immediately following Ali’s death, Mu’awiya ibn

Abi Sufayn takes the Arabian throne as Caliph. He shifts the power of the Arabian empire to

Syria with its capital of Damascus. This marks the start of the Arabian dynastic rule with the

Ummayad Dynasty.

Under Ummayad rule, resolving political trouble overshadowed the importance of

Arabia’s expansion with its religion. Under Mu’awiya’s rule, a truce was agreed upon between the Arabs and the Byzantines to keep the borders peaceful. Even after his death, the dynasty still continued the growth of the mighty empire. At the Ummayad’s height of power, they were able to stretch the Arabian Empire from Spain in the west to the borders of China in the East.

69 The Abbasids came into rule in 749 and lasted until 1258. Their lineage connects them

with the Abbas, Muhammad’s uncle. In order to take the caliphate from the Ummayads, they

allied with the Shi’ites, the long time opposition of the Ummayad Dynasty, under the leadership of Abu Muslim. With Abu Muslim, most of the Arabian Empire became united to fight against

the Ummayad. Abu al-Abbas as-Saffah took the throne of the first Abbasid Caliphate. Under the second caliph, the capital of the empire was moved from Damascus to Baghdad.

The Turks occupied parts of Arabia under the command of Tughril Beg. He was

successful enough in attacking the peninsula that he eventually took Baghdad in 1055 A.D.

While Arabia was under the Seljuk rule, the Crusades from Europe started seeking the Holy

Land of Christ and were able to take from the Muslims. At this time, Salah al-Din,

known as today, led the defense against the Crusaders. In 1187, Saladin was successful

in recapturing Jerusalem.

70 With the invasion of the Mongols into Baghdad led by the Khan family, they forced the survivors of the Abbasid Dynasty into Egypt to take refuge with the Mamluks. The Mamluks were soldier slaves that were recruited by the Ayyubids. In the late 16th century, they came to power with their strong military force. They took control and held Egypt against fast sweeping

Mongols. Though strong enough to defeat the Mongols, they were no match for the Ottomans and their use of artillery.

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahab pushed forth the reform movement known as the

Wahhabi. The Wahhabi spurred national spirit and violence within Arabia. Those targeted were mainly the Turks and those that sought to expand Arabia. The Wahhabi eventually started to fade but just before the First World War, but was revived with a strong military force. Ibn Saud signed a military pact with Britain to fight against the Turks. By the end of and the defeat of Turkey by the Allies, the Turks were driven out of Arabia.

This yet resulted in another conflict. Again the country would be caught up in civil disputes. The warring leaders were Ibn Saud and Husayn ibn Ali with the aid of other Arab families. Saud became the victor and soon after the kingdom of Saudi Arabia came into being.

71 The , the family that Husayn ibn Ali belonged to, were aided by the allies after their

defeat. They were given land in the Transjordan region and Iraq. Britain became a paramount foreign power in Arabia, but their influence waned after World War II and Britain eventually

withdrew its forces in the 1960s.

72 After World War II, the United Nations concluded that the Israeli people needed a country of their own. With their support, Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948 and thus sparked an ongoing war of border disputes and land possession. The land that is disputed lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the River. With Israel as an independent country for the Jewish people, the Arabs lost a prized Holy City, Jerusalem, which became the capital of

Israel.

During the Cold war, both the United States and the USSR sought to gain control of the rich oil fields in the Arabian Peninsula. Arab nations fought back for their own independence backed by the large profits that were generated by the oil. Saudi Arabia, with its control of the

73 Arabian American Oil Company displayed the growing power and influences that Arabian countries had.

74 Culture The dominant religion of Arabia is Islam. The religion came into being through the

Prophet Muhammad. At the age of 40, Muhammad received visions of God from Mount Hira, located to the north of Mecca. His vision was that God commanded him to preach. Throughout the rest of his life, Muhammad had revelations and visions that he recorded. His visions were

put into a collection that is known as the Qur’an or the Koran. The birthplace of Muhammad,

the Islamic cornerstone to which all Muslims pray, is Makkah or Mecca.

The Arabian culture spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula and its neighboring

countries through expansion of the empire. As a result, the religion carried with it the Arabic language. The main speakers of the Arabic language are inhabitants ranging from Morocco to

Iraq. The language is the most widespread of living . Dialects of Arabic differ based on the region in which they are spoken, i.e. urban, rural and nomadic speakers. The earliest written inscriptions date back to the early 4th century AD.

Most of the Arabic people are sedentary due to the region’s climate. The population is

most concentrated around oases and coasts. The two most popular of these regions are the Nejd,

located in central Arabia, and the which is the northeast coast of the Red Sea. The main

occupation of Arabs is agriculture. In ancient times, Arabia was a key and central trading place

for goods around the world. Arabia itself had fine goods to export prior to the discovery of oil with goods such as spices, camels, coffee, and wool. The most famous exports were fine bred

Arabian horses, and in West Arabia, pearls were exported. Today, Arabia has the largest oil reserves in the world as well as mass amounts of natural gas.

75 In the age where Arabia saw rapid growth, it was known that attention was mostly paid to

politics and the expansion of land instead of the spread of their religion. When the Arabian

Empire swept through the Middle East, they brought with them Islam, but it was not forced upon

their subjects. Instead, those who were conquered by the Arabians were free to adopt the faith

on their own though open opposition did result in bloodshed. These converts, known as Mawali,

were seen at a lower spectrum of the social ladder though they were still treated as equals in

terms of payment of taxes.

A woman’s role and status in the Arab world changed with the modernization of their

culture in recent times. Education increased the literacy rate of women from rural to urban

settings as more and more young girls started attending school. With the increased education

that women received, the range of work also increased. Women workers started appearing in factories, they took charge of the land and livestock while the men in the family were away,

worked clerical positions in the government and were even women lawyers, doctors, and social

workers. While male dominance was still emphasized in Arab societies, a woman’s career and

job could only be second in the importance and priority of their male counterpart.

76 Technology The Arab technological contribution to the rest of the world is one that is much like their religion, a contribution with great impact and lasting importance. One such technological advancement in ancient Arabia is the number system. An early form of the number system was introduced to Arabia from India. With that, they developed a positional number system though it was not used by the Arabs themselves, but it was used only as research by Arab mathematicians.

The positional system that was used is backwards to what we know today. The actual value of a

number is determined by the order in which it is written, e.g. “123” the two has the value of

twenty while in “132” the two has a value of two hundred thirty. Approximately 850 AD, zero

was introduced as a point by the mathematician Muhammad Musa al-Khwârizmî. Around 952

AD, Abu’l-Hasan-al-Uqlidisi explains the concept of decimal fractions. It was not until the

spread of the number system in the late 10th century to Europe that it eventually became the form

that we know today with much of the credit owed to Arabic mathematicians.

The Arabs used their calligraphy to write the Qur’an, the Arabic counterpart of the

Christian Bible. Early writings of the Qur’an consisted of great elaborate characters and texts

and at times written in gold. Like other languages in ancient Europe and the Middle East, the

Arabs used alphabetic script with symbols for sounds to make words. The Arabic alphabet

consists of eighteen base letter shapes. When combined with one, two or three dots, there are

twenty eight letters in the alphabet.

77

Like much of the Islamic culture, the Arabic alphabet spread to other surrounding Middle

Eastern countries along with their religion.

Ancient civilizations greatly depended on animals for all types of jobs from heavy

manual labor such as pulling to transportation for carrying people and goods as well as hunting.

With the Arabian Peninsula being a central place for trading, Arabian bred horses gained their fame. Originally horses were introduced from to the Egyptians then from Egypt to

Arabia and North Africa. Arabian horses are smaller in size compared to other horses but they are fast and have remarkable endurance. These horses became popular and spread to other countries such as Spain. Spanish Explorers brought with them Arabian horses to America in the

16th century which makes up the American Standardbred horses today.

One of the greatest feats of Ancient Arabia was providing water to people in the vast

desert where they settled. The building of the Sadd Ma’rib dam in the Sabaean kingdom (ca.

610-115 B.C.) proved to be of such significance that the town of Ma’rib became its capital.

78 Inscriptions on the dam suggest that Sumhu’aly Yanuf and his son Yatha’-amar Bayyin were the

main builders. This great engineering feat of irrigation displayed the great technological

advancement that Sabaeans had and contributed much to their success in the trade routes. When the dam was destroyed around the mid 6th century A.D., the civilizations around it were destroyed as well.

Another note of early Arab technological advancement was the Ghumdan castle in Sana.

In order to keep the tribes and their raids at bay, the Himyarites erected the great

fortress palace around 100 A.D. According to descriptions by Al-Hamdani and Yaqut, the fortress stood twenty stories high which made it the first recorded skyscraper. The building was

made of granite, porphyry, and marble. The castle contained the king’s court on the highest level

with each face of the building a different color stone. Today all that is left of the great fortress are ruins left from the battles for al-Yaman.

79 Military In terms of military conquest, the Arabs were a “tour de force” in the Middle Eastern

world. Though operating without a formal military force when compared to the modern United

States or Britain, Arab commanders were cunning and strategic enough to bring the Arabian

Empire into Europe, Africa and the East Asia. Arab soldiers consisted of those who were

formally trained to perform military duties, but a large number of the armies were those of

ordinary citizens. They included men who were captives or those who were conquered by the

Arabs, nomads who were part different tribes called to band together, and farmers or peasants called to take up arms.

The most famous of these warriors were the Mamluks. The Mamluks were used by the

Muslims as soldierslaves. They consisted of young non-Muslim men and boys who were captured by the Arabian armies. At a young age, they would be trained only to fight and were turned into cavalry soldiers who were only loyal to each other and their masters. A part of their training was the conversion of faith to Islam. The Mamluks were stationed in Egypt and mainly used to keep Muslim influence in that area. Heavily trained in weapons and hand to hand combat, they survived and defeated foreign enemies that their masters could not. This led to the rise of Mamluk rule until it was destroyed by the Turks.

A great advantage that the Arabs had over any other country was terrain. Many compare this advantage to the use of the sea by the Europeans that led to the establishment of their great empires. The sea of the Arabs was the desert. Survival was only in the hands of those who controlled sources of water, shelter, and food. Only the Arabs knew the desert well enough to use it as a means of communication for supplies, reinforcements, and a safety for retreat against

80 the enemy. Many times invading countries such as Rome would make great progress in their efforts to conquer Arabia but would be forced to retreat because of the lack of water, food, and supplies.

81 Arms

The Arabians’ tools for their conquests and push for the Islamic faith were their arms

and armor. An Arabian warrior’s main inventory consisted of a shield (turs), a dagger (jambiya),

a sword (saif), and a spear (rumh). Weapons and armor were a soldier’s most treasured property

and were often confiscated when they were defeated for their physical value. Many of the

weapons that a soldier carried were very decorative and were in a sense a type of art. Some even

considered their weapons a form of jewelry. Weapons among Arab soldiers were so highly

honored that myths and legends were spread about them, and some of these names were used as

names for people.

The dagger or jambiya was a final line of defense or offense, like a pistol sidearm in

today’s military. It provided the soldier a handy weapon for close range combat, but for an

assassin, it was the perfect concealable weapon. The dagger consisted of lightweight metal with a reinforcing rib and was cased in a scabbard made of metal, leather, or wood.

The Arab soldier’s main arsenal of offense were the scimitar or saif, a curved sword, and a spear or rumh. The scimitar featured a curve near the latter half of the sword in which the blade changes from one sided to double sided. This provided the soldier a sword that could be wielded swiftly and the added curve was excellent at cutting flesh. The spear gave soldier a ranged weapon. When used in a large group, it can menace the enemy and weaken large opposing groups. The weapons that the Arab soldiers used were all designed with lightweight and durability in mind.

82 Armor

In order to defend themselves, the Arabs developed armor and shields. The main lines of defense were mail armor, shields, and helmets. A crucial part of an Arab soldier’s arsenal was the shield or tur. The shield was lightweight and made primarily of either metal or hide. The shield was worn on the forearm or it was carried in the hand. Shields also served as a form of art. The Sudanese used circular shields that were made from rhinoceros or elephant hide. In the center of the shield was a dome shaped boss. from Arms and Armor by Hamlyn

The Abyssinians used a similar shield, but it was decorated with silver. Shields not only protected the soldier but also carried meaning in their decorations. Some bore decorations of war and battles while others contained a more tranquil scene filled with writing and patterns (Arms and Armor by Hamlyn).

While the shield was good at deflecting attacks, the Arabs also wore in case they were to be struck by weapons. A chain mail works by connecting many links or loops of metal to create a type of suit. It is meant to stop a blade from cutting or piercing. Some suits vary to a collarless shirt that ran to the waist with separate pieces for the legs and head. Other suits feature full body coverage from head to shins (The Baron De Cosson).

The coat of mail is also known as the hauberk and is shown in the picture above. This coat features long sleeves that cover the back of the hand but exposes the cuff and palm.

Sections of rings within the mail are made up of very thin parallelograms. On each link, Arabic

83 inscriptions are found spelling out the names of Allah, Mohammed, Ali, Fatima, Husein, and

Hasan and are believed to bring certain strength to the wearer of the mail.

84 Islamic North Africa

The geography of North Africa is very much like history, very vast and diverse. North

Africa is divided up into two separate regions. The eastern area consists of Egypt and Sudan.

The western half, known as the Maghrib, spans from present day Morocco to and is separated from central Africa by the . Because the spread of Islam through these areas is considerably different, it is best to examine their history separately.

History of Egypt

Egypt historically has been a turbulent area that has often ridden the tides of change that time and again have swept over the earth. It has seen the rise and fall of many empires, who each have left their mark on the unique culture of the land. From the pyramids of the ancient

Egyptian Pharaohs to the great walls of Cairo built by the Fatimid dynasty, each ruling power has left its mark on the history of the region. The introduction of Islam to this region has influenced the culture and history of Egypt greatly.

The first known inhabitants of Egypt were the Paleolithic cultures, who could have been around as early as 500,000 B.C. The next classification of inhabitants was the Neolithic cultures that emerged around 7000 B.C, and the pre-dynastic period around 4500 B.C. This culture would give way to one of the most famous periods in Egypt’s history; the next 3000 years would bring Egypt under the dynastic rule of many long lines of Pharaohs. The kingdom of Egypt extended as far south as Sudan for much of its history. The end of Pharaonic Egypt would come at the feet of the , which would rule Egypt along with much of Mesopotamia for the next 360 years. Just as the Pharaonic Egyptian Empire fell, Roman rule collapsed around

85 330 A.D. The last pre-Islamic empires to rule were the Persian Sassanians and the Byzantine empires (Collins, 20).

Islam developed among tribal societies in the Arabian Peninsula and its growth outwards spread with the conquests of the roving Arabic army. Around 639 B.C. the armies of the Islamic

Arabs under the rule of the Rightly Guided Caliphs had begun their conquest of eastern North

Africa. The Byzantine Empire in Egypt was not ready for such a brazen attack, as it was plagued by internal dissension in religious and political matters. The people of the Byzantine Empire in

Egypt were very receptive of the Arabic invaders, because they believed that they would relieve them of the oppression of the tyrannical imperialist rule (Collins, 20). The invading Arab armies were led by the commander Amr ibn al-As who served the current Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab.

The people of Egypt accepted the rule of the Muslims because they were tolerant of their religion and did not impose restrictions on the practice of Coptic Christianity. Amr ibn al-As established the small garrison town of Al- which would become the modern city of Cairo. He also built the first mosque, which he named after himself. The Caliphs over the next couple of hundred years would adopt the Byzantine structure of government, appointing governors to rule in various seats of power throughout Egypt (Collins, 22).

The end of the rule of the Rightly Guided Caliphs from the Arabic peninsula came around the year 661, when the Governor of Syria, Muawiya, overthrew the fourth Caliph, Ali.

Muawiya moved the seat of power of the Islamic Empire to the city of Damascus. The shift of power from the Rightly Guided Caliphs reflected the emerging popular principle of Islamic unity based on allegiance to the heritage of the Prophet (Collins, 23). This emerging principle was a move away from the traditional tribal based rule of the earlier Arabic societies to the more governmentally structured forms adopted from their Byzantine hosts. Muawiya founded the

86 Umayyad dynasty, which would rule for the next 89 years. Since the beginning of Islamic rule

in Egypt, the local people had enjoyed virtual equality with their new Arab overseers. The

structure of the society in Islamic Egypt during the Umayyad dynasty changed with the focus of

Arab rule over the non-Arabs (Collins, 23). There were many devout Muslims saw great

problems with the secularism of the Umayyad Caliph.

The Umayyad dynasty came to an end around the year 750 A.D. with their overthrow by

the Abbasids, who were a group claiming descent from Muhammad's paternal uncle. They

sought to return the Islamic empire back to its previous religious structure. During the Abbasid

period, the Islamic Empire was extended in many directions and Egypt was one of the more

important areas. The Abbasids furthered the move from tribal-based Islamic society to an

adopted Persian concept of sovereignty (Collins, 25).

The control of Egypt was taken away from the Abbasid dynasty in 868 A.D., when

Ahmad ibn Tulun, one of their Turkish governors in Egypt, turned on the dynasty and

reorganized the army and the administration to support his own personal dynasty (Collins, 29).

Because of serious problems in the structures of government and administration on all levels, the

Abbasid dynasty was not able to deal with the insurrection, so they begrudgingly recognized the

Tulinids as an independent Islamic dynasty. This military based regime would prove to be short

lived; when the plunder ran out, so did the military support. This regime only lasted until 905

A.D (Collins, 30).

The theme of independent Islamic rule in Egypt did not die with the downfall of the

Tulinid dynasty since the Abbasid dynasty was not powerful enough to completely reclaim the area they lost. A new independent group, the Ikshidid dynasty, sprung up around 935 A.D.

They were quickly ousted by the invading Fatimid army in 969 A.D. under the rule of their

87 general, (Collins, 31). The Fatimid dynasty was an offshoot from the Shi'i in present day

Tunisia, that took its name from the Muhammad's daughter Fatima, from whom they claimed descent. The Fatimid Dynasty accomplished many important things during their rule in Egypt.

They established the city of Cairo, which they made their capital, and they also built the great mosque al-Azhar with an institution of higher learning next to it. Around 1000 A.D. Arabic became the official language of the Islamic empire. Egypt became very rich during this time because of the increased trade with Europe; Egypt was the center of a major trade route between

Europe and Asia (Collins, 32). One of the Fatimid's greatest achievements was the building of the great stonework gates of Cairo, erected by the and vizier of the Fatimid empire, Badr al-

Jamali in 1087 A.D. Not only were they impressive and appealing, they incorporated the most modern defense design of the day (Collins, 32). This became apparent with the historic battle against the crusaders by the general Saladin in 1160 A.D.

The same general Saladin who beat back the crusaders from the gates of Cairo, declared the end of the Fatimid rule and started the Ayyubid Sultanate. Saladin employed a Coptic architect to design the citadel and the circuit walls around Cairo (Collins, 35). This move shows the great military wisdom that Saladin possessed.

88

Map of the Ayyubid Sultanate http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ayyu/hg_g_ayyu_d1map.htm

As the Ayyubid Sultanate started to wane around 1252 A.D., a revolutionary new power

began to emerge in Egypt. This revolutionary military power came in the form of the Mamluk

who were slaves brought to Egypt from various parts of the newly conquered Islamic empire.

Many of these slaves were of Turkish descent along with slaves from European areas conquered by the Islamic empire. Some of these slaves would eventually rise to holding ranks in the armies of the Ayyubid Sultanate. The word Mamluk means "slave" in Arabic: by this time most of the soldiers were such slaves in what had become one of the largest military powers to be wielded in

89 Egypt (Collins 34). In this time the non-Egyptians held more power in the society than the natives did. Often the wealthiest people in the kingdom would be the king's personal Mamluks.

The creation of the occurred after the death of the last Ayyubid Sultan in 1250

A.D, when the Turkish Mamluk Qutuz declared himself sultan. The Mamluks, who were trained since childhood the art of warfare, proved themselves to be resilient against the invading

Mongolian army. The battle fought at Ayn Jalut in Palestine in the year 1260 A.D., was the indicator of the Mongols' failure to conquer the Mamluks. The time of the Mamluk sultanate is filled with not only military success but also the building of many public and religious structures

(Collins, 35) including mosques and schools. As time went on the Mamluk Sultanate grew weaker as they lost their role as a middleman in the spice trade between Europe and Asia. The military structure of the great Mamluk army began to deteriorate because of inner corruption.

The economic and military decline along with their inability to adapt to modern weaponry would be the downfall of this great empire (Collins, 36).

90

Map of the Mameluk Sultanate http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/maml/maml_d1map.htm

The end of the Mamluk Sultanate would come from the barrel of a gun rather than the

blade of sword. The Mamluk, while familiar with firearms and very adept at cavalry warfare,

were no match for the Ottomans' firearms. In 1516 A.D. the famous Mamluk cavalry met their

end at the hands of Ottoman troops in the battle of Marj Dabiq (Collins, 36). The Ottoman armies conquered all of Egypt and Syria by 1517 A.D. The Ottomans would control Egypt through personally selected Mamluk governors for roughly the next 300 years, transforming it into the capital of their Egyptian provinces. The Ottoman rule of Egypt was interrupted between

1798 and 1801 by a brief invasion by Napoleon. The French occupation of Egypt ended with the

opposition of the combined English and Turkish forces in 1801. With France out of the picture,

the displaced Ottoman Empire tried to reclaim its former territory. A young officer named

91 Mohammed Ali was chosen to govern Cairo. He quickly named himself of Egypt under the Ottoman Empire (Collins, 53). Mohammed Ali soon realized the threat that the former ruling

Mamluks would present since they still technically held feudal rights to the land. Mohammed used his Albanian troops to hunt down and imprison or kill all the remaining Mamluk rulers who stood in his way.

The British, who favored the malleable Mamluk rule, were displeased with the Turkish reoccupation of Egypt and sought to restore the Mamluks to their rule. The British invasion was quickly put down by the Albanian army employed by Mohammed Ali. Now that the Mamluk and British threats were past, Mohammed could concentrate on his paramount goal; the complete control of Egypt (Collins, 54). His first move to unifying Egypt under himself, was to destroy all the title deeds to the land, except the ones he owned.

With the unification of Egypt under Mohammed Ali, progress towards a single modern state became a reality. Mohammed Ali had factories, shipyards and canals built by foreign workers, to help bring Egypt up to modern standards (Collins, 58). Along with increased trade with Europe, especially cotton which was introduced in 1822, many Europeans began to travel to

Egypt for tourism and archaeological studies.

Driven by the potential for trade and economic growth, the Europeans were constantly looking for faster routes to the big markets in Asia. Egypt in the past had logically become one of the more ideal routes because of its location. The only problem in taking the Egypt trade route was the little strip of land that separated the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Mohammed

Ali would never see the crowning achievement of Egyptian modernization. In 1857 after

Mohammed Ali’s death, work on the Suez Canal commenced, until 1869 when it was finished

(Collins, 60). Mohammed’s heirs spent much money modernizing Cairo and accumulating so

92 much debt that they destroyed the autonomous rule Egypt had been enjoying for many years.

They rebuilt large parts of the city to give it a Parisian character, outfitted the city with gas

power, and later electric power. The costs of all these projects were passed directly onto the

people through horrendous taxation (Collins, 60). Eventually the peasants revolted causing

Britain and France to send in their navies to control what they considered to be a valuable land asset. In 1882 the British army took control of Egypt, and Lord Cromer was appointed to run it

for the next 24 years.

World War I would change much of the political and administrative structure of Egypt.

The reason for most of the strife between the Egyptians and their British masters came because of the forced break off from the Ottoman Empire (Collins, 94). In 1914, Britain declared Egypt a

British . This move was due in part to the Ottoman Empire entering the war on the side of the Axis, and because Britain could not risk losing Egypt to the Axis. The Egyptian saw this more as an excuse to control their country more (Collins, 94). Even after the war British-

Egyptian relations continued to plummet. Britain gave several superficial liberties to the

Egyptians, such as giving sovereignty to their own king Fuad I in 1922. Actions like these were intended to make the Egyptians feel better, but they still did not change the economic control that

Britain retained (Collins, 98). The building conflict between the Egyptians and their unwavering overseers culminated in anti-British riots in Cairo and a coup led by the Free Officers Movement in 1952, which placed Muhammad Najib as President and Prime Minister of Egypt. Egypt was declared a republic in June of 1953 (Collins, 135).

93 History of Western North Africa (The Maghrib)

The western half of North Africa is a land of great history and culture; it is a land of great

change and diverse cultural influences. One could easily see that through the vast scope of

known , scarcely have there been times where the winds of change lay dormant in

this land. The common name for the region, "The Maghrib", is an Arabic word which translates

to "land of the sunset" (Abun-Nasr, 1). The Maghrib stretches from present day Morocco to

Algeria and from the Mediterranean to the Sahara. In order to understand the present day

Maghrib, including the Islamic empire years, one must first understand the pre-existing cultures

and history that shaped this remarkable land.

As early as 8000 B.C., the first inhabitants, known as the Caspian culture, dwelled in

caves and rock shelters, hunting and living off the land. This nomadic life style is a key theme to

the culture of the people of the Maghrib, constantly moving and adapting, not much would stay

constant in this land. Around 2500 B.C., the individualistic warrior mentality of the Beaker

culture emerged. The combination of the Beaker and Caspian cultures, along with various other

cultures culminates in the only true indigenous people of the Maghrib, the Berbers (Abun-Nasr,

1). The Berbers, much like the Maghrib itself, would have to change and learn to adapt to the

various invading forces and large empires. Around 1500 B.C. the area around the Sahara started

to dry out forming the Sahara desert. This would cause isolation between the northern Maghrib

and southern Maghrib for a very long time. Around 1100 B.C. the first major foreign influence,

the Phoenicians, took hold of several areas along the coast of the Maghrib and the Iberian

Peninsula for trade centers. The Phoenicians were a seafaring people who founded the great city of , which is in Tunisia today (Abun-Nasr, 7). Around 600 B.C. the people of Carthage, known as the Carthaginians, expanded their empire vying for control against their Roman and

94 Greek rivals. After subduing their Greek neighbors, the Romans set their sights on Carthage. It took the three great for the Romans to completely annihilate the Carthaginian threat to their empire. With Carthage completely razed and the earth around it salted, the Romans now controlled the Maghrib for the Roman Empire (Abun-Nasr, 36). The Maghrib was very important for the expanding Roman Empire, since it supplied a good percentage of the wheat that was needed for the empire. As the Roman Empire started to outstretch its elasticity, their power in the Maghrib started to wane. Around 429 A.D. the Germanic Christian tribes called the

Vandals invaded the dying Roman settlements, and soon picked up much Roman culture (Abun-

Nasr, 45). The Vandal rule, which was just shy of a hundred years of pillaging, would come to an end very shortly. The end of the Vandal rule came from the invading Byzantine army, around

533 A.D., who claimed North Africa for Emperor Justinian, and drove the Vandals from the land

(Abun-Nasr, 53). With the Byzantine rule came the standardized religion of the Christian

Church as the dominant religious power in the Maghrib. This religious move caused much friction in the Maghrib, between the practices of the natives to the Maghrib and the enforced

Christian Church practice brought by the Byzantine conquerors. Byzantine power over religion and politics expanded only inside of the cities they controlled. The autonomous Berber tribes remained free from the religious persecution that most of the local people faced.

Shortly after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in Egypt before the invading Arabic armies, Islam started migrating west from Egypt into the Maghrib under the Umayyad rule. The initial move into the Maghrib was led by the general Amr al-As around 642 A.D. (Abun-Nasr,

68). The progress of this migration into the Maghrib was slow for various reasons. The first of these reasons was the internal strife and power struggles between the Caliphs of the Islamic empire, because of this, the conquest of Maghrib was more in the spirit of short term raids for

95 plunder. The second problem was the strength and the resilience of the indigenous Berber tribes.

The first battle against the Berber tribes happened in 670 A.D., with the Arab warrior Uqba ibn

Nafi leading the Arab army to conquer the area of Tunisia (Abun-Nasr, 68). The slow

advancement of Islam into the Maghrib was very beneficial because many local people started to

convert to Islam slowly as the reality of eventual Islamic rule became more and more apparent.

Because of problems in the capital city of Sicily, Emperor Constantine IV withdrew most of his

army from Africa. This move left the Berbers to fight off the advancing Islamic armies alone.

The Ummayad rule lasted until approximately 750 A.D. After this time, the Islamic Maghrib would be split into western Maghrib, present-day Algeria and Morocco, and the eastern Maghrib, present-day and Tunisia. The removal of the Ummayad rule had been initialized by the

Abbasid takeover. Both the eastern and western Maghrib tolerated the Abbasid rule, with the eastern half enduring for 18 years longer than the western side. This would be the last time that a group would hold the entire Maghrib under singular control for approximately the next 400 years.

96

Map of the Umayyad Dynasty http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/umay/hd_umay_d1map.htm

Map of the Abbasid Dynasty http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abba/hd_abba_d1map.htm

In the eastern Maghrib, following the demise of the Abbasid rule around 800 A.D., the

Aghlabid dynasty was formed. This was initiated by the suppression of a rebellion of a garrison in Tunis against their governor Ibn Muqatil. The governor of the nearby Zab, Ibn Aghlab,

97 helped suppress this insurrection, but rather than restoring the power to Muqatil, he claimed it for

himself (Abun-Nasr, 76). His reign over Tunisia was assured by the caliph who was forced to

accept the change of power. The territory of the Aghlabid dynasty comprised of most of Tunisia

and eastern Algeria to Zab.

There were many problems that the Aghlabid dynasty presented to their subjects. The

first of these was the conduct of the army that the kept in the city of Tunis (Abun-

Nasr, 77). This army was known for its hostile treatment of the populace and its insubordination

to the rulers. Secondly, the amirs of the Aghlabid dynasty lived lives of pleasure with complete

disregard for religious teachings. At this time, Tunis was considered central for the facilities of

religious teaching. It was very controversial to many of the religious leaders that such a

disrespectful power could rule Tunisia (Abun-Nasr, 77). To alleviate the problems between the

religious community and the Aghlabid dynasty, the amirs constructed many extravagant religious

buildings. The Aghlabid were also known for their building of many ribats, which were fortified monasteries, along the coast of the Mediterranean (Abun-Nasr, 77). From these monasteries, many raids on the Italian mainland and Sicily were staged. The conquests of the Italian lands along with developed agriculture, establishing trade caravans across the Sahara and promoting

Arabic language as a standard, made the Aghlabid dynasty one of the more successful chapters in the Islamic history of the Maghrib (Abun-Nasr, 78).

Like many other religions, Islam had many different interpretations and factions within

itself. The Shiite chief of the Isma’ilis, Ubaidalla Sa’id led a revolt against the Sunni Aghlabid

dynasty, and conquered their lands in 909 A.D. He claimed descent from Fatima, the Prophet's

daughter, and therefore called his dynasty the Fatimid dynasty (Abun-Nasr, 81). Much of the

Fatimid dynasty in Tunisia was concentrated on fighting the various interfaith battles. One

98 example of this is the constant suppression of Spanish Umayyad influence from Morocco. The

Fatimid dynasty employed two Berber dynasties, the Zirids and the Hammadids to serve as

vassals (Abun-Nasr, 84). They also built two great capitals in the Maghrib, al-Mahdiya which

was on the Mediterranean coast and al-Mansuriya was designed as a round city.

Map of the Fatimid Dynasty http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fati/hg_d_fati_d1map.htm

The Zirids had been a reliable and loyal vassal to the Fatimid dynasty, but when they

were awarded more power by the Fatimid dynasty in 978 A.D., they started to claim

independence from the Fatimid dynasty. As a result the Fatimids ordered one of their vassals the

Banu Hilali to wreak havoc on the (Abun-Nasr, 85). Around this time another powerful Berber dynasty, the Hammadids, built a fortified citadel in the Maadid Mountains in

Algeria.

In the western Maghrib the separation of Morocco from the Abbasid authority caused by

the Kharijite rebellion caused the leader of the Idrisid state, Idris b. Abdulla to flee to the

protection of two Berber tribes (Abun-Nasr, 79). This dynasty, which would rule from 788 A.D.

99 to 990 A.D., would set the precedent for shared Arab and Berber Islamic rule in the western

Maghrib. For the first time in the history of the Maghrib, the native Berber tribes would be sharing rule in the Islamic controlled North Africa. With the help of the local tribes, Idris in May of 791 A.D. captured most of the coastal strip of Morocco as far as the Bu Ragrag river (Abun-

Nasr, 79). The would be passed on, after Idris b. Abdulla’s assassination by an

Aghlabid agent, to a son of one of his concubines. This action was supported by the Berber tribes, who insisted that rule of the dynasty be passed on to the next male heir to Idris. The boy who was born in July of 791 A.D., would be known as Idris II, and would make a significant impact on the western Maghrib. One of Idris II’s major accomplishments was the founding of the city of Fez in 808 A.D., which would serve as his capital (Abun-Nasr, 79). Idris II’s major

change to the Idrisid was the promotion of which was never before as pronounced.

The arrival of Spanish Arab refugees after the rebellion in Cordova in 818 A.D. helped this

change in the character of the area. The Idrisid Dynasty was broken up into nine small

principalities ruled by Idris II’s sons after his death. The oldest son of Idris II, Muhammad, held

control of the smaller principalities, and over the years his descendents transformed Fez into a

flourishing capital and important center for religious learning (Abun-Nasr, 80). The reign of the

Idrisid Dynastic would be taken over by Berber tribe rule around 990 A.D. till 1061 with the

arrival of the .

The Almoravid Dynasty grew from a displaced nomadic Berber tribe called the .

The Sanhaja Berbers came from the Western Sahara, and sought the more fertile plains of

Morocco. During the decline of the Zirid Dynasty, the Almoravid Dynasty grew in size and

power in the Maghrib. They founded the city of Marrakesh as their capital in the year 1062

A.D., and in 1110 A.D. they controlled a large portion of Islamic Spain, until the Christian

100 conquest in 1118 A.D. (Abun-Nasr, 100). The significant contribution that the Almoravid

Dynasty made to the Islamic Maghrib was the revival of Islam to orthodox standards. The end of

the Almoravid Dynasty would be brought by another uprising Islamic Berber dynasty, the

Almohads, in 1120 A.D.

The Almohad Dynasty would bring one of the few periods of complete rule of eastern

and western Maghrib to a single dynasty. The Almohad uprising, led by in 1120

A.D., was based on religious opposition to the strict Islamic doctrines of the Almoravid Dynasty.

In the year 1147 A.D., the city of Marrakesh was captured by the successor to Ibn Tumart, Abd

al-Mumin. The rule of the Almohad Dynasty extended from the eastern Maghrib to Islamic

Spain. The Almohad Dynasty's contribution to the Islamic society of the Maghrib was in its

religious reformation to the empire from the harsh orthodox beliefs of the Almoravid Dynasty.

The cities of Sevilla and Marrakesh become centers of Islamic religious learning. This society

cultivated scientific and philosophical growth while also strengthening the religious unification

of the empire by forcing Christians and Jews to either convert or emigrate (Abun-Nasr, 104).

The control of Islamic Spain was taken from the Almohad Dynasty in the year 1212 A.D. during the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa by the Christian forces of Leon, Navarra and Aragon (Laroui,

193). This caused the Almohad Dynasty to retreat back to Africa. The disintegration of the

Almohad Dynasty into smaller regional dynasties took place over the following 57 years. In the year 1236 A.D. the Almohad Dynasty loses the city of Tunis to the Hafsids, and in 1269 A.D. the last stronghold of the Almohad Dynasty, the city of Marrakesh, falls to the Marinids.

The was a break off of the Almohad Dynasty. A governor of the

Almohad Dynasty, Abu Zakariyya, took control of the city of Tunis and established it as the capital for the Hafsid Dynasty (Abun-Nasr, 137). In this period, the Christian reconquest of

101 Spain caused the immigration of many Jews and Muslims from all over the Iberian Peninsula.

This flood of refugees added to the vast cultural diversity in the Maghrib. The Hafsid Dynasty

would last until 1574 A.D. with the coming of the Ottoman Empire (Abun-Nasr, 149).

The Marinid Dynasty, which was an Umayyad ally in Cordoba, was the other significant

group to emerge from the decline of Almohad Dynasty. With the capture of Marrakesh in 1269

A.D., the Marinid Dynasty continued to expand temporarily into the Hafsid land (Abun-Nasr,

124). This expansion was cut short because of depleted resources from constant attempts to

reclaim Spain and much of the Maghrib. One of the Marinid Dynastys greatest contributions to

the Maghrib was the city New Fez, which was a flourishing center for literature and the arts. The

end of the Marinid Dynasty came around 1465 A.D., when the continuous resource depleting failed conquests finally reduced the dynasty to anarchy (Abun-Nasr, 137).

The Sa'did Sharifs were the next group to rule the western Maghrib. They came to power

around the year 1510 A.D., and took Marrakesh as their capital. The time of the Sa'did Sharifs is

marked by economic prosperity because of their successful gold and slave trade (Abun-Nasr,

213). This prosperous rule ended in 1659, when the last of the Sa'did rulers was assassinated in Marrakesh.

One of the most powerful ruling groups in the history of the Maghrib is the Ottoman

Empire. The Ottoman Empire controlled both of the eastern and western halves of the Maghrib, capturing Algeria and Tunisia in 1555 A.D. and 1574 A.D. respectively. The Ottoman controlled areas absorbed much of the Turkish culture and administrative structure. The

Ottoman controlled Maghrib over the years experienced several other local military leaders who took more and more power as the Ottoman Empire grew weaker from overextension. One of these groups was the Muradid Dynasty, who were regents of the Ottoman Empire but semi-

102 independently ruled in Tunisia around the year 1612 A.D. The Muradid Dynasty was replaced by the Husaynid family around the year 1705 A.D.

The lands of the Sa'did Sharifs were taken over by the Alawids shortly after the fall of

Marrakesh and Fez to the Alawids in 1664 A.D. The Alawids remain in control of Morocco to this day.

103 Arms of Islamic North Africa

Blades

Jambiya

The Jambiya is an example of a popular weapon which existed in all parts of the vast

Islamic Empire, but with distinct varying characteristics depending on its origin. It is a small ornate dagger usually hung from the neck. Used for ceremonial purposes and warfare alike, this dagger would usually be worn at ceremonies such as weddings and circumcision feasts

(Tarassuk, 284).

HAM 3765.a, Jambiya, mid-20th century, Northern Africa

HAM 3765.b, Scabbard for jambiya, mid-20th century, Northern Africa

104 Physical Description

This dagger has a unique curved double edged blade, usually with a rib in the middle.

The hilt usually is made completely out of metal and has an hour glass shape with a large flat

pommel. The scabbard is often ornately crafted out of brass and silver, the front usually made

with the silver and the back usually made of brass. The shape of the scabbard has an accented curve that usually ends up pointing upwards with large ornamental lugs with rings that attach to a cord so that it can be hung from the neck. Generally the half of the hilt and scabbard that usually face out are more ornate than the half that is covered (Stone, 311). This blade is found in countries all over North Africa and as far as the reaches of the Persian Islamic empire (Akehurst,

123). Although the blade has a universal design throughout most of the empire, the shape and style of the scabbard and the hilt are specific to the area of its origin.

Moroccan Jambiya

The Moroccan style of the Jambiya is very different from most styles. They generally tend to have a straight single edged blade for half of the length from the hilt and are curved and double edged for the rest of the blade. Most Moroccan blades do not have the characteristic rib down the blade (Stone, 311).

HAM 3762.a, Jambiya, Probably 19th century, Morocco

105

HAM 3762.b, Scabbard for jambiya, Probably 19th century, Morocco

Nimcha

The nimcha is a fine example of the effect of European influence on North African arms.

This unique weapon usually has a single edged curved blade and a distinctive hilt which is very characteristic of European style sabers. This weapon was still in use till the 19th century (North,

29).

http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/OA/items/000727.html

106 Physical Description

The blades of most North African are usually curved, but the few straight blade nimchas that one might find would probably be imported from Europe. The hilts of these swords show the greatest proof of European influence. The hilts resemble many European saber styles with the knuckle bow attached to curved quillions (North, 29-30).

http://www.oriental-arms.co.il/OA/items/000108.html

Kaskara

The kaskara is a distinct African straight bladed sword from the Sudan region. It is believed to be a descendent of the double edged medieval Arabic sword. There also appears to

107 be European influence in the style of these blades. These blades and close relatives were used by the Tuaregs and warriors of the Sahara (North, 30).

http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/kaskara/

Physical Description

The shape of the kaskara suggests medieval European influence if not complete imitation.

It has a straight double edged blade which is usually uniform in shape till the bluntly tapered tip.

The blades of these swords often have broad central fullers that run from the crossguard to a quarter or third of the blade length. The hilts of these swords have surprising European like qualities, with a straight simple crossguard usually made of iron and large disc pommel made of wood (Briggs, 45).

108

http://www.vikingsword.com/ethsword/kaskara/

Takouba

The takouba was a sword most commonly associated with the well-known nomadic berber tribe descendents, the Tuareg, who controlled much of the Sahara and its various trade routes. This straight double edged sword, like the kaskara, is often confused with being a descendent of medieval European swords.

109

http://www.aiusa.com/medsword/ethsword/takouba/index.html

Physical Description

The blade of the takouba is characteristically tapered to a rounded point. Often the edges of these blades are irregular because of repeated sharpening. These swords often have three fullers running the length of the blade, the middle fuller being the longest of the others. The shape of the hilt varies on the origin of the blade. The "southern" form of the takouba has a wide crossguard usually made of brass and a rounded pommel. The "central" form of the takouba has a crossguard covered with leather and a pyramid shaped pommel of either brass or copper

(Briggs, 37-92).

110

http://www.aiusa.com/medsword/ethsword/takouba/index.html

Firearms

Kabyle Gun:

The Kabyle gun was one of the most popular guns in North Africa and other parts of the

Islamic empire from around the time of the end of the 16th century. The Kabyle lock gets its

name from the Kabyles, which were a tribe of Berbers who intermixed with Arabs in Algeria,

Tunisia and Morocco. The Kabyle lock is remarkably similar to Dutch and English types of

"snaphance" locks, which suggests European influence (Tarassuk, 289)

.

111

HAM 3620, Musket with Kabyle Lock, 18th-19th century, Morocco

Physical Description

The Kabyle gun resembled its European counterparts but was significantly larger. The

average Kabyle gun measured about 71 inches from the butt to the end of the barrel. The Kabyle

mimicked the European design but with a very distinctive fish-tail stock. The wooden stocks

usually had an ivory butt, and the surface of the stock was characteristically ornate with inlaid

stained bone mosaic or silver sheet. Silver wire was also used around the late 18th to 19th century, motifs of scrolls or flowers were very common (North, 19). A series of twelve iron, brass or silver bands held the barrel to the stock. Some Kabyle guns from the 17th century, are

fitted with discarded military locks from European guns (Tarassuk, 289).

112 Armor

Mail

The most common mail of the North African region is the djawshan, which is a mail shirt with small plates. A very prominent type of djawshan in North Africa is the Mameluk variety.

Mameluk mail characteristically has flat rings that are riveted doubly or singly in each alternative row and stamped out of sheet metal on the rows between. These rings on these rows were stamped with patterns of either concentric dots, rings or scriptural text (Russell, 77).

Limb Armor

The Mameluk type of armor for the limbs consisted of solid plate vambraces for the forearms, horizontal lamellae for the thighs and probably leather boots for the legs. The vambraces usually had an extension for the back of the hand and mail connected splints that strapped to the inside of the arm. The lamellae for the thighs attached to a knee plate with mail

(Russell, 77).

Helmets

The typical Mamluk helmet had the popular conical form of most Persian and Turkish helmets and varied between types with aventails and nasal guards. One very popular form of

Mameluk helmets were Turkish and Persian inspired deep helmets, which featured cut out for the eyes and a veil of mail to cover the rest of the face. A nasal guard usually reinforces the defense of the face. This is often referred to as the " helmet" because its large size suggests that a turban or a heavily padded cap wrapped with a headcloth was worn underneath the helmet. The helmets are usually ornately fluted in bands diagonally vertically or spirally to the top of the

113 helmet, and are often engraved with inscriptions or foliate arabesques and usually damascened

with silver and gold (Russell, 77).

Shields

Like many other specific arms and armor types present in North Africa, there is no

existence of an authentic Mameluk shield such as the daraka which were originally used by the desert tribesmen. From graphical depictions on the gate of victory in Cairo, it has been

determined that they were small round shields with a conical shape. These shields were made of

laminated wood, metal or hide (Russell, 82).

114 The Ottoman Empire

Ottoman History

The Ottoman Empire would grow into an Islamic state with tremendous influence over the Middle East and even Europe. From the 16th century, when the Ottomans defeated Egypt and their leader, , succeeded to the Califate, until the end of World War 1, the Ottoman

Empire was the ruling factor in the central Middle East. Ottoman practices and policies left a

lasting legacy with the other Islamic nations.

The first Turks were nomadic tribes with a common language type, first recorded in 750

B.C. They originated in the Asian steppes, but the Mongol invasions forced them to migrate.

These converted completely to Islam around the tenth century. There were originally two primary groups that shared the common language characteristics and that would develop into the Ottoman Empire, the Seljuks and the Ghazis. The Seljuks adopted a settled life that attempted to imitate more developed Islamic civilizations. The Ghazis remained nomadic.

Their warrior tradition dictated that they conduct battle for Islam, and they lived off the spoils from their battles. The Ghazis often entered combat with other Islamic groups, and they came into conflict with the Seljuks. The Seljuks directed them to Anatolia, the eastern domain of what was then the Byzantine Empire. Both the trend of the Seljuk Turks towards a settled Islamic civilization and organized government and administration, and this tradition of ghaza (warfare to extend the outer boundaries of Islam), were to play a role in the development of the Ottoman

Empire.

115 The beginnings of this empire were in one of the many small emirates established in

Anatolia after the Ghazi invasion. The leader of a small Ghazi province, Osman, had several military successes against the Byzantine empire, which inspired other chieftains and tribesmen to join him. With this increased military strength, he was able to extend his domains into northwest

Anatolia. By the time he died in 1326, he had a state capital, struck his own coins, and had founded a theological seminary. As his principality grew into an established state, his people became known by the family name, which gradually became the “Ottomans”. The pride of this dynasty (“Ghazi, son of Ghazi” as he had inscribed on his mosque) provided a link amongst the

Turkish peoples which helped to transcend their tribal lines.

Osman’s son Orhan extended his dominion to the Dardanelles. The Ghazi state was geared towards conquest and continuous expansion, and at the behest of the Byzantine emperor they moved into Europe, into the Balkans. The Balkans were politically disconnected and unable to set up a unified response to the incursion. Where Ghazi warriors went, settlers from overpopulated Anatolia soon followed, an irrepressible flood.

The Ottomans around this time, under Murad I (mid 14th century) were also in conflict with their rival in Anatolia, the Turkoman tribe of Karaman. The Karaman claimed to uphold the traditions of the Seljuks and their High Islam, and claimed that the Ottomans were disloyal to the

Ghazi tradition because they attacked Muslims as well as Christians. The Ottomans claimed that the Karaman were the ones who were disloyal to the Ghazi tradition because their constant attacks distracted the Ottomans from their war against the Infidels.

After Murad was killed while putting down the Serbian uprising, his son Bajazet I began a series of military campaigns, leading his army back and forth between Anatolia and Europe, both of which were trying to overthrow his rule. He had one goal – to create an Ottoman empire.

116 Bajazet was quite successful in his campaigns, and in 1394 he began the siege of Constantinople.

He had also invaded Hungary, and the European powers could no longer ignore the threat that

the Ottomans posed. They waged what was basically the last crusade. The Ottomans and the

Europeans met at Nicopolis in 1396. The crusaders lost. Bajazet now turned his attention to the

rest of Anatolia, and he soon controlled almost all of the area formerly controlled by the

collapsed Byzantine empire in Anatolia and the Balkans – except for Constantinople.

Bajazet never gained Constantinople, and the Empire he had struggled to consolidate

soon collapsed. A fierce warrior Turk named Timur the , who had created an empire out of the Mongol remnants and married a Mongol as well, had attacked Persia and subjugated Iran.

His dominion had spread to the edges of Anatolia, and the two were inevitably doomed to

conflict. In 1402 the two men and their armies met near Ankara. The Ottomans were defeated

and Bajazet commited suicide after being taken prisoner.

The size of the Ottoman holdings were reduced to their size before Bajazet’s conquests.

In 1421 restoration for the Ottomans really began under the reign of Murad II. Murad regained

the emirates of western Anatolia, regained Serbia, but was rebuffed from Hungary and

Transylvania. Murad II was not that interested in conflict, however, and he soon stabilized his

borders with peace treaties with Venice, the Karamanids, and the like. However, Europe prepared a large-scale invasion, mistaking his weariness with battle for weakness. Murad and his army crushed the Europeans at Varna in 1444. The campaigns he initiated to gain back the lands lost after conflict with Timur were successful, and by the time Murad died they had regained everything but still faced Constantinople. Europe wasn’t concerned though – they saw his son,

Mohammed, as weak and inconsequential.

117 Mohammed II (also known as Mehmet) moved against Constantinople with the promise

of booty (legal under Islamic law because the city had not surrendered) motivating his army. In

1453 the city fell. Mohammed II established himself as the absolute sovereign of the Ottoman

Empire. In the space of 500 years the Ottomans had developed from nomadic tribesmen to one of

the most influential and powerful states in the Middle East.

Map of Ottoman acquisitions

With his power consolidated Mohammed II continued the Holy War, which allowed him to continue to add to his empire, advancing alternately through Europe and Anatolia. He took

Athens, Serbia, and Bosnia, and finally the entire Balkans – meaning that a vast trading area was under Ottoman control. He also gained control of all the land in central Anatolia which had formerly belonged to the Karamanids. During the thirty years of warfare he conducted during his

118 reign, he also managed to transform Constantinople (Istanbul) into a new and repopulated city, albeit by using some very unpopular economic policies to support these changes.

Selim I came into power in 1512 by forcing his father to abdicate. He inherited conflicts with the Safavid house of Persia and the Mamluks. Ottoman artillery and firepower led to the defeat of the Safavid house at Chaldrain in 1514. Campaigns against the Mamluks in 1516 and

1517 left Selim in control of Syria and Egypt.

When Selim died, his son Suleiman came into power, and the old Ghaza traditions were resumed. Suleiman was looking westward. Suleiman had in mind two objectives which had eluded his ancestors – Belgrade, stepping stone to Hungary and Central Europe, and the island of

Rhodes, stepping stone to the Mediterranean. Both soon fell to him, in 1521 and 1522 respectively. Suleiman’s reign extended the borders of the Ottoman empire into Persia, the

Mediterranean, Arabia and Europe. He occupied the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, key to the

Islamic faith.

After Suleiman’s reign, however, the great Ottoman Empire began a slow process of decline. It soon became apparent that the Russians would be a threat, but the first Ottoman forays into Russia were doomed to failure – winter in that inhospitable region has always taken a harsh toll on any foreign army to cross its borders. The Ottomans were forced to withdraw. At the same time, the Ottomans were always in conflict with the Hapsburgs, who were concerned by the Ottoman menace in the Mediterranean. In 1571 the Ottomans were defeated in a naval battle against Europe off of Lepanto (a Greek town). The Ottomans rebuilt their fleet, however, and continued to be a sea power.

Spain challenged the Ottomans in North Africa, where they were attempting to expand westward. The Spanish took Tunis in 1573, but the Ottomans retook it in 1574. In 1576 the

119 Ottomans also took Morocco – and now only the Straights of Gibraltar separated the Turks from

Spain, leading the Spanish to seek and establish a formal peace treaty with them.

By the mid-seventeenth century Ottoman decline was becoming evident. The Ottoman

navy, long one of its greatest military assets, was in shambles. They were disgraced in naval

combat with the Venetians, their age old enemies. Public security was lacking and the treasury

was empty. The state was in great trouble. Under the reign of the Kuprilis, though, the state once

again recovered, rebuilding their navy and reasserting themselves in conflicts along their borders.

As ever, the Ottomans measured the strength of their state through their ability to expand.

Europe was rife with the familiar fear and hatred the Turks had inspired throughout history.

Europe struck back, and once again the tides of fortune for the Turkish people seemed to ebb.

The Ottomans were floundering under the stress of external defeat, and also internal strife as

brothers vied against brother to control the empire.

Internal weakness and external pressures troubled the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and

19th centuries. In 1798 Napoleon invaded Egypt and Syria, and in the 1830s Muhammed Ali

Pasha’s occupation of Syria worked its way up into Anatolia. The Sultan had to accept Russian

help to defend Constantinople. Although Napolean and Muhammed Ali Pasha were both

defeated, there was no doubt that the Ottoman Empire had become drastically weaker. They had

needed European intervention to save Constantinople and their independence, and they would

continue to need help until the dissolution of the empire. Russia, seeing their weakness, waged

the Crimean war (of 1854 to 1856) and the Russo-Turkish War (of 1877-1878) because they

wanted to control Turkey and especially Istanbul themselves, but they were unsuccessful as the

British were also concerned with the future of the Ottoman empire and territories.

120 There was much internal dissent in the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

The Young Turks rose to power, trying to save the remnants of the Ottoman empire and

transform it into something modern. Their unfortunate decision to enter the First World War on

the side of the Germans led to the complete collapse of the Ottoman empire, and the rise of modern Turkey.

121 Ottoman Culture

The Ottomans used the term Memalik-I Mahrusa to describe their empire – the “well

protected (by God) domains (of the sultan)” (Itzkonowitz, p. 42). This marks one of the

differences in Ottoman culture – while Islamic traditions contained at least the ideal of elections to government, the Ottomans had inherited from the steppes the belief in sovereignty of a particular family branch. The Osman dynasty would continue until 1923 and the birth of the nation of Turkey. This dynasty was one unique attribute of Ottoman culture.

Just as the Ottoman heritage from the steppes has its influence, so did two other aspects of the birth of the Ottoman empire; the Ghazi ideal and the high Islamic traditions, largely modeled to the Ottomans by Persia.

The Ghazi ideal was to conquer lands for Islam. The Ottoman Empire was developed through conquest, organized with conquest as its intent, and sustained its power and growth through conquest. The importance of warfare to the Ottomans is reflected in their society, which was divided into two social spheres. The reaya were the ruled, while the askeris, the rulers, was a word that also meant the military. This emphasis on the military was logical, given that the

Ottoman empire sustained itself through conflict.

Once a land had been conquered through this Ghazi spirit, however, it was governed according to the principles of high Islam. A strong central government was core to the way the

Ottomans ruled, and then the system was broken down into provinces, following the administrative principles of the Persians.

At the top, of course, was the Sultan, established by heredity. His deputy was the Grand

Vizier, who was responsible for the day-to-day business of the empire. The Sultan and Grand

122 Vizier were assisted by the , or the council. The divan consisted of the highest officials

from the military, judicial and financial branches of the government.

The Sultan ruled over the reaya and the askeris, the two primary divisions of Ottoman society. The reaya were the ruled, who created wealth for the military elite; the nomads, the

peasants, and the town and city dwellers. The askeri guarded their positions jealously, and there

were marks to differentiate the two classes – for instance, the reaya could not carry swords or ride horses. Maintaining the reaya was important to the Ottoman empire because the askeri received many tax exemptions as part of their privileged status, and it was the reaya that drove their economy. Originally, despite the huge divide between the two classes, religion had nothing to do with one’s social class. There were Christian Timar-holders (holders of small provinces),

which were part of the askeri, but eventually they all converted or were pushed down into the

reaya class.

The askeri included all the levels of provincial administration, including the Timar-

holders. This was the most basic level of Ottoman administration, passed down through multiple

levels (the sultan’s authority was passed down to beglerbeg to sanakberg to the timariot (Timar-

holder). The Timar was a grant of land on which peasants worked. The Timar generated an

income, part of which was passed back to the Sultan, and also fighting men for the Sultan’s

army. Theoretically, all the land in the kingdom belonged to the Sultan and there was no

hereditary right, although the Timars were almost always granted to the son of the former owner.

The Ottomans late in their age attempted to determine why their empire was

disintegrating. They traced it all back to the deterioration of the askeri-reaya system. They

outlined the “Circle of Equity” (Itzkowitz, p. 88), of which four principles are:

1. There can be no royal authority without the military.

123 2. There can be no military without wealth.

3. The reaya produce the wealth.

4. The sultan keeps the reaya by making justice reign.

The Circle of Equity indicates the Ottoman understanding of a social sphere in which everyone had their own place, which was key to the social order. It was difficult to rise in the social hierarchy, unless one was a boy taken in one of the devshirme, a levy of male youth

(described later). Whether it was the disintegration of this structure that caused the fall of the

Ottoman empire, or whether that disintegration was merely a symptom, this culture certainly was the underpinning for Ottoman conquest and prosperity.

124 Military Culture in the Ottoman Empire

Military culture was infused into the fabric of Ottoman society. It provided the means by which their empire sustained itself, and it was an important part of society itself and the way people defined themselves. The Ottoman people had a will for war, and the men claimed that they would “be happier if they die on the battlefield among the spears and arrows of the enemy then at home among the tears and slavering of the old women” (Goodwin, p. 66). The different branches of the Ottoman military were the (the empire’s standing infantry), the feudal cavalry and infantry (based through the timariots), the akinci (volunteer bands of infantry) and the navy.

The Janissaries are perhaps the most memorable form of the Ottoman warrior. These warriors were drawn from the Devshirme, the boy tribute that was originally collected once every three or four years. The Devshirme was a rather unique process, a tax levied on towns which were required to produce a certain number of healthy youth, but it wasn’t necessarily cruel

– the collectors spared the children of widows, and only sons, and the boys had opportunities far beyond what was available to them in their own villages. The Janissaries were slaves of the

Sultan, completely dependant on him, the sons of Christian subjects who were converted to

Islam. The Ottomans didn’t mind forcible conversions, feeling that whenever the form of religion is followed, belief will eventually follow. Although parents originally tried to protect their sons from the Devshirme when it began in the Balkans, and would try to steal back their children en route, eventually some parents would try to get their sons into the Devshirme with its many opportunities for advancement. The Janissaries had many special privileges and a high status in society – they were automatically part of the askeris. Their sons entered the askeris

125 world as true Muslims, and for that reason weren’t allowed to follow their fathers into the

corps.

The feudal cavalry and infantry were sustained through the timar system. Each timariot

had to produce men for the Sultan’s wars in accordance with his income – the holders of small

timariots only a few men, the holders of great ones many. One example is the register for the

timariot Sunkur (Itzkowitz, p. 45-6), which offers for the sultan’s disposal, “himself in heavy

armor, four horsemen with cuirasses” and also 129 other men, seven tents, and a field kitchen.

His four horsemen would have been known as spahi, Muslim Turkish cavalrymen. Strongly influenced by the Ghazi spirit, they wore skins and practiced firing arrows from horseback while galloping.

The akinci were volunteer bands of cavalrymen who rode behind the army, traveling far

and wide to serve the Sultan for free. They lived off whatever they could pillage from the enemy,

fighting in the hopes of reward – a brave warrior who performed well in the battle might be

rewarded with a timar. These hopefuls were an important component of the Ottoman war-

fighting strategy. These men were cannon fodder, attacking the enemy before the battle was

launched, wearing down the enemy before the Janissaries destroyed him. Their pillaging was

also demoralizing to the enemy areas they traveled through.

The Ottomans had no naval tradition, given their origins from the steppes. However, they

were forced to develop a navy due to their interactions with maritime powers like Venice and

Genoa in the 1400s. At first the Ottomans employed , but they soon began to

build their own ships, learning everything they could from “Christian” ship building. Although the navy was an inconsistent asset – strong at one point, important to the conquest of

Constantinople, and then withering by the end of the seventeenth century – it added to the

126 terrifying power of the Ottomans. All along the Mediterranean coast, people told horror stories of

Turkish raids from the sea.

The culture of the Ottoman military was orderly and rigid. While “western camps were babels of disorder, drunkenness and debauchery” (Goodwin, p. 70), Ottoman camps were set up neatly, and the men behaved in a well-disciplined manner. When the Ottomans stopped during a campaign, a city of tents quickly rose, and the mess was prepared. One observer said that “the

Ottomans lodge more grandly in the field then at home” (Goodwin, p. 71).

This rigid and orderly nature is exemplified not only in their camps, but in the Ottoman adaptation to new military advances. The Ottomans adapted quickly to technological developments, embracing artillery and gunpowder before the West. At first, they had a strong advantage over their Christian enemies. But this willingness to embrace new technology did not extend to a willingness to embrace new tactics, and so they found themselves by the eighteenth century far behind the west. For example, when European armies were employing musket fire by unit, considering the muskets as a whole, the Ottomans continued to view their warriors as independent units, each vying to be the bravest. The Ottoman mindset, which had been one of their greatest strengths, was also becoming one of their weaknesses.

Given that the Ottoman empire sustained itself so much through warfare, the degeneration of the military as Western military processes became so dominant, may have been one of the greatest reasons for the fall of the Ottoman empire. Perhaps once the Ottomans ran out of territory to occupy, as well as began to lose the ability to do so, the days of the Ottoman empire were numbered.

127 Arms and Armor

In the 10th century, the Turkish speaking peoples used distinctive swords, which were

“broad, straight, and non tapering in typically Byzantine style,” (Akehurst, p. 214). From here they quickly developed into using sabers. Broad-ended sabers were “originally favored by the

Mamluks and subsequently adopted by the Ottomans” (Akehurst, p. 145). These early sabers were single-bladed. Later on, they developed a “double curved outline”, and the tip of the saber became broader (Nicolle, p. 216). Two distinctive types of sabers were the Yataghan and the

Kilij.

The Yataghan was a saber with a “very elongated S shape” (North, p. 24) single-edged blade, and a short hilt with no guard. The was a saber with a pronounced curve to the blade and a mameluke (pistol grip) style hilt. These sabers were designed exclusively for the cavalry; they were designed for a slashing motion and useless for thrusting.

HAM 3622.a, Ottoman saber.

128 The Janissaries would have carried some type of these sabers, which were made of

watered steel. Some were also decorated with koftgari, ornamental work consisting of a light

metal (gold or silver) inlaid over steel. Some are also stamped with the “tomga”, which was the

seal of a guild member in the steel-working craft.

Some of the Janissaries might carry maces, probably the “Gurz”. This was a “non-

symmetrical mace” (Nicolle, p. 65), with a head that “may be pear shaped or flanged” (Stone, p.

270). War maces were made of steel, but some were used as symbols of command. These were

made out of precious metals, copper or brass. Ottoman warriors may also have carried daggers or

a crescent-bladed axe, depending on their tastes.

HAM 3628, Ottoman war hammer

The most basic weapon, however, used by the Janissaries, the Turkish infantrymen and

the cavalry, was the composite bow. This was a short composite bow, smaller than the Arab version. Unlike the finger draw prevalent in Europe and many other areas, Turkish bows were drawn with the thumb.

The Ottomans would have carried this bow in a bow-case, a symbol of the nomadic side

of their heritage (Nomads adopted the bow case because they were always carrying their bows,

129 while more stationary troops would only draw their bows from the armory for practice or war).

They would also have carried a quiver for their arrows, generally an elongated box-type quiver.

Different kinds of arrowheads have been discovered. A broad, double headed arrow was

used for hunting. Typical for Central Asia, this is seen in every area that came under Ottoman

influence. Arrowheads for war are “tanged” (Nicolle, p. 179). Some seem to have been designed

to penetrate armor and shields, others to inflict wide wounds and carry poison (due to a small

hole at the base of the blade).

From the bow, the Janissaries picked up muskets. The Turks were one of the first among

the Islamic groups to recognize the importance of firearms. They used cannons in the siege of

Constantinople and by the 1500’s they were arming their troops with muskets. Originally, they

used matchlock guns (also known as an arquebus). They continued to use the matchlock after the

wheel lock was developed, favoring the simplicity and reliability of the matchlock type. They

adopted the miquelot type (snap lock) in the beginning of the 17th century, probably from Spain.

Later in the century that adopted the flintlock musket.

HAM 3620, Example of an Islamic musket, 18th-19th century.

The Turks had their own adaptations to make to these firearms, both internal and

external. Turkish barrels impressed the Europeans a great deal – they had deeply grooved barrels.

The concept of watering, which they had used to forge their swords, was also employed in

130 making their barrels. Firearms also had a “distinctively shaped cock” (North, p. 9), flat sided butts, and on some firearms, a stock slope that provided a purchase for the thumb behind the breech. They preferred a “small ball trigger without guard” (Akehust, p. 132). The Turks had

blunderbusses and pistols and the like, but the most common example of their firearms is the

musket.

Ottoman armor was generally a mix of mail and lamellar (flexible, thin metal plates).

Armor for an infantryman was described as a short or a long sleeve mail shirt, under a lamellar

cuirass, a coif (a mail hood, which might be worn alone or under a helmet, and which was

generally worn over a buffering cap made of coiled rope), mail chausses, and a helmet. Armor

for a cavalryman was similar, primarily composed to long narrow lamellae, probably metal (but

they sometimes used hardened leather for the lamellae). One design for the helmet was the

“turban” type (Akehust, p. 217) but in the 12th and 13th centuries the conical and generally fluted

helmet became more popular.

The Turks also armored their horses in ways that were very similar to those the Mongols employed, from around the mid-14th century onwards. This horse armor was of lamellar

construction in five or six pieces to protect the horse’s head, neck, shoulders and flanks, and the lamellar was either hardened leather or metal.

The Turks carried not only their bow case and quivers, but also, of course, sabers. They had a sword belt with straps with two D-shaped attachments with which to secure the saber.

131

Conclusion

The Interactive Qualifying Project at Higgins Armory Museum was a great learning experience in terms of teamwork and knowledge of Middle Eastern artifacts. The project consists of a few main components that were made into a virtual exhibit for public access on the World Wide Web. Each of the five project members had a specific region in which they did research on. Higgins Armory provided the various artifacts in which each one had its picture recorded. The pictures were then put onto a searchable database. Some interactive portions of the website were made to give any viewer of the website a closer look at the artifacts. One is a rotating 360 degree helmet and the other is a musket that can be magnified.

The project took place over the course of four terms (A, B, C, and D terms) at WPI.

The region in which each member researched and wrote about consists of Islam, Turkey, Persia,

Arabia, and North Africa. After the research had been complete, papers were written and would later on be modified to be published online. The materials covered consist of each region’s own history, culture, technology, customs, military, and arms and armor specific to that region. With the help of our project advisor, the research papers were fine tuned and ready to be put onto the website. All this was done during B term.

The next step was to take pictures of all the artifacts from the Middle East that the Higgins

Armory Museum had to offer. This process was done using high resolution digital cameras and digital medium to record them on. The weight, physical measurement, and material make up of each artifact were recorded along with its picture. Along with the photos, planning of the website was also started.

All this was done at the armory during C term.

The website is created along with some added features for user interactivity. The text from the research papers are put online. A searchable database is added to the website to give the user the ability

132 to see any and all of the Middle Eastern artifacts that Higgins Armory has to offer. 360 degree models of a Persian helmet are made and as well as a magnified view of a Moroccan musket. Final preparations and tweaking are done on the website. This was all done during D term.

Every aspect of the project took careful planning. Problems arose and were met with solid solutions. Arms and armors are a showcase of technological and cultural achievement from any civilization. The arms and armors from Islam are examples of the influence that the religion had and still has over the Middle Eastern region of the world. That influence extends, throughout different periods of time, from Arabia and Persia to the Ottoman Empire and Northern Africa. This virtual exhibit has shown a broad spectrum of artifacts ranging from swords, daggers, spears, and muskets for weapons and helmets, mail, and shields for armor. The arms and armor of Islam display reminiscence of conflicts as well as the culture that these artifacts originated.

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Website Documentation

Creating our website and all the technical components for it was tricky as none of us has

a background oriented towards computer science. However, we not only learned new things but

were assisted by the work which previous IQP groups had done to create their sites for Higgins

Armory.

The base for our website was created using Microsoft Front Page, as well as some

direct HTML/PHP editing. The banner graphic was created using the Linux program "The

GiMP", featuring a photo of one of the weapons in the Higgins Armory collection (directly below).

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Opening page of our website.

The design of our website features two permanent windows, the banner at the top and a navigation bar on the top as well offering links to our documents (for Islam, Turkey, North

Africa, Persia and Arabia, as well as our bibliographies and About Us page). The navigation bar also offers links to the web-based components we produced. The “Interactive” page offers two different projects which the user can manipulate to learn more about Middle Eastern arms and armor. One is a 360 degree view of a helmet, and the other is a magnified image of an Islamic

135 gun, so that its details can be magnified. The “Search” page enables users to search through all the Islamic pieces in the Higgins Armory collection for artifacts of interest.

The Search screen for the database

The “Search” page was created by using Microsoft Access to extract the pertinent

Middle Eastern artifacts from the general database and placing them in their own table. Some

problems with this were the constant crashing of Windows products in general, and difficulties

getting Access to build a correct database. We borrowed code from the Machiavelli project for

the search engine, which had been built from an older version of the general Higgins Armory

database. One problem we encountered was that our newer version of the database had fields that

136 had been renamed or added, or data types that were not compatible with the Machiavelli search

code. This was fixed by creating an Access file where the elements were identical to the

Machiavelli format.

Once the data had been correctly filtered using Access, a free program called

Navicat was used to connect to the WPI SQL server (mysql.wpi.edu) and upload the database.

This program directly converted the local Access file (*.mdb) to SQL. The Machiavelli project

members wrote a program called Access_to_MySQL.exe that intended to complete this task, but

it did not have the ability to parse large amounts of text, and would crash on artifacts that had a

long description or comments.

Another problem was that Access did not have the category_id (xref) correctly entered

after running a make-table query. The query actually asked for which type of artifacts to return,

and if 'any' was entered, the resultant table would have 'any' filled in for all of the category_id fields. Having this value correct is necessary for the database to actually return any results, and

after manually assigning values to all of these, the database began to return results.

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One of the two interactive exhibits, the 360 degree helmet.

There in another bar located at the top of the interactive page to direct the user to one of

the two elements. The 360 degree helmet comes up first. On the left is an image of a Persian

helmet, and one the right, the text to explain what the user is viewing. Below the image are

buttons to allow the user to begin rotating the helmet so that it can be seen from all sides.

We created this component by taking high resolution photographs of the helmet on a

turntable, 36 pictures of the same helmet rotated 10 degrees each time. We used free Javascript

to create an internet slideshow, which was modified to display the pictures in order so that it would appear that the piece was rotating. This component was difficult to create because of the

138 team’s lack of experience with Java, but eventually we figured out the code to make a smooth interactive exhibit for the user.

139

The “Musket Magnifier” interactive exhibit The Musket Magnifier was created using html and various high resolution pictures, so that we could click on separate sections of the musket and get a closer view of it with a total of 3 magnification levels for each section. We had originally tried to do an interactive Roll Over script, but we ran into trouble implementing it with dynamic texts. After many trial and error runs, the final solution was various magnified views of the musket.

140

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Kelsay, John (1993) Islam and War. Westminster/John Knox Press.

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Busse, Heribert. Islam, , and Christianity: Theological and Historical Affiliations. Princeton, NJ: Marks Wiener Publishers, 1998.

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Briggs, Lloyd Cabot, "European Blades in Tuareg Swords and Daggers," The Journal of the Arms & Armour Society. [U.K.] Vol. V. No. 2. (1965), p. 37 - 92.

Brown, L. Carl Imperial legacy : the Ottoman imprint on the Balkans and the Middle East. New York : Columbia University Press, c1996.

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Coe, Michael D. (1989). Swords and hilt weapons. New York, Weidenfeld.

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144

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145

About Us

Eric Hall is a junior at WPI majoring in Electrical/Computer Engineering. He is a member of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity.

Joseph Hsu is a junior at WPI majoring in Electrical/Computer Engineering. He is a member of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity.

Jon Mulla is also a junior at WPI majoring in Electrical/Computer Engineering. He is also a member of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity.

Guinevere Petrousky is a junior at WPI majoring in Humanities. She is a midshipman in

Holy Cross NROTC and competes for WPI’s Track & Field and Swimming & Diving teams.

John David Quartararo is a third year electrical and computer engineering student with a concentration in signals and communications. He is also an active member in his fraternity, Phi

Sigma Kappa.

146 Permission Note:

Regarding First Map in Persian Historical Section, Courtesy Limbert:

Thank you for your inquiry. Although we would not want this statement construed as a warranty or guarantee, to the best of our knowledge this material is in the public domain. Therefore, Dover cannot grant or withhold permission for its use. In the interest of proper documentation we would, of course, appreciate a credit line indicating author, title and publisher.

Terri Torretto Dover Publications Rights & Permissions Dept.

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