anyone know anything bout Arabian battle tech - Historum

JerseyPerson14 · March 5th, 2007, 02:46 PM

Anyone know anything about the battle field techniques and equipment used by the arabs that made them so successful?

There is a ton of stuff on roman tactics, and chinese tech but nothing on the arabs or other middle easterners like the persians. The semetic people were great conquerors as well.

What kind of armor did they have? Swords? spears?

Procopius · March 5th, 2007, 03:48 PM

wow, i was going to ask the same question. I have always wondered why they were so successful (besides the fact many towns were persecuted and just let them in). Well the sassanids were pretty disorganized after thier shahanshah fled and a central defense impossible. I really don't know how they attacked though, in movies you always see them riding horses =\

**Belisarius** · March 6th, 2007, 03:27 AM

I'll get back to you on that as I don't have my books to hand. From memory Arab armies were about 50% mounted [camels or horses] spear armed, with little or no armor to speak of in the conquest period. Infantry were either spear or bow armed and generally poor quality. When they conquered the Sassanian and Byzantine territories, they got access to armouries so the level of equipment improved.

**Belisarius** · March 7th, 2007, 11:09 AM

This has for reasons of time to be a brief synthesis of the available information. Byzantine manuals in how to deal with their various enemies provide a lot of detail in this respect. “Tech” and tactics evolved along with developments in the Arab dominated Empire of Islam. Early period, pre-conquest Arab armies were mainly infantry. The use of self-bows or composite bows averaging 5 feet in length was commonplace, to the extent that even Mohammad is alleged to have occasionally preached leaning on a bow. Those warriors who weren’t archers were unarmoured spearmen. After the Ridda wars and during the conquest itself Arabs were mainly mounted, either on camels or on horses. This enabled them to cover great distances at a speed remarked upon by their enemies. Mounted archers are mentioned in the sources, but it is not clear if these dismounted to fight or were true horse-archers like the Huns or Avars. Arab cavalry was armed with a lance, often made of bamboo, called a “Rumh”, possibly based on a Roman-Byzantine lance. Armour was rare and usually worn by warriors in the front rank of a formation, either foot or mounted.

Tactics during this period were fairly simple. The army would form in a huge single block at least 5 ranks deep and either attack, or await attack They would usually wait until their enemy had exhausted themselves attacking this formation and then launch a counter attack of their own. Other tactics included a feigned retreat to lure gullible opponents into a prepared ambush. Later armies split the formation into about five blocks of troops roughly corresponding to the traditional advanced guard, left wing, right wing, centre, and reserve or baggage guard.

After the conquest Islamic armies contained many other nationalities that fought with their own weapons and in their own style, and as I’ve said before, access to conquered arsenals resulted in an increase in the use of armour, often a blend of Sassanian and Byzantine in style.

Hope this answers your question.

Procopius · March 7th, 2007, 02:13 PM

thanks, i've been wondering for a long time

JerseyPerson14 · March 7th, 2007, 04:14 PM

History channel needs to do a series on the arabs, and it can start from ancient bedouin times all the way to iraq wars.

Procopius · March 7th, 2007, 04:20 PM

true, i have never seen an show on arabs, they did mention them on the sahara one briefly. Also they have never done it on engineering an empire -_-

salvier1450 · April 25th, 2007, 05:23 PM

Well, to answer the question, the Arabs people were the real ones who discovered modern day technology. First, the improvements of giant water wheels made their Empire very steady and it expanded even more. There are some more similar things but I'm not going to mention b/c I don't know much about them.

Another improvement is the use of algebra, number 0, and medicine. They were also the first people to create the fork, spoons, etc in feasts.

Finally when it comes to warfare, they took the Mongol cannons and Chinese gunpowder to improve those tools. The Arabs made more powerful cannons that indeed destroyed to pieces the walls of Constantinople. Handguns were much more sophisticated that the ones used in Africa durinng the 12th and 13th century. The trebuchet (or a better version of the catapult) was successful as well in wars. Stunningly, they made the anti-fire suit that made many warriors "immortal". And last but not least, the Arabs engineered the first torpedo that would travel straight for at least 100 yards.

I hope that helps... But I am positive that these guys created all those weaponry!

mygdon · May 16th, 2007, 05:32 AM

I think we should also mention the sword. Initially, the sword was the premium weapon of Arabs. Swords of the Prophet and following khalifs can still be seen in Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. I think originally swords were imported, Yemen swords being famous and sought after.

Within 50 years Arabs conquered Egypt, Sassanids (Iran and Iraq) and defeated Byzantine Empire. I get the impression that this is not because their armies were very strong or they used good weapons or tactics, but because at that time the big powers (BE and S) were tired of long wars, but also their subjects were fed up with pressure on them.

I am not sure whether gunpowder was available at that time, but don't think it was.

As years passed, more and more soldiers (and weapons and commanders) were available and after 200 years or so Arabs were only a ruling class.

mygdon · May 16th, 2007, 05:33 AM

I think we should also mention the sword. Initially, the sword was the premium weapon of Arabs. Swords of the Prophet and following khalifs can still be seen in Topkapi Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. I think originally swords were imported, Yemen swords being famous and sought after.

Within 50 years Arabs conquered Egypt, Sassanids (Iran and Iraq) and defeated Byzantine Empire. I get the impression that this is not because their armies were very strong or they used good weapons or tactics, but because at that time the big powers (BE and S) were tired of long wars, but also their subjects were fed up with pressure on them.

I am not sure whether gunpowder was available at that time, but don't think it was.

As years passed, more and more soldiers (and weapons and commanders) were available and after 200 years or so Arabs were only a ruling class.