Conquest of Persia (Iran) by the Arabs. Arab conquests Arab conquest of Iran

Arabs and their rapid conquests. The Arab state arose along with Islam. The founder of both is considered to be the Prophet Muhammad, who lived until 632 and died of illness at the age of 60. He stood at the head of the state for less than three years. And from the first days of his power, he developed grandiose plans for the conquest of new territories and the spread of new teachings. Its powerful neighbors were the Byzantine Empire and Sasanian Iran. The Arabs made their first military campaigns during his lifetime, and they were so successful that they inspired the warriors. And here a special role belongs to Islam, because it united the disparate tribes of the Arabs, subordinated them to religious discipline and gave them confidence in the rightness of their cause, in invincibility, which created superiority over the well-armed and trained armies of Byzantium and Iran.

During the short 30 years of rule of the first successors of Muhammad, who are usually called the “righteous caliphs,” i.e. "Muhammad's deputies", the Arabs conquered almost the entire huge Sasanian state, which included the regions of modern Iraq, Iran and a number of other lands, and successfully annexed the African and Asian territories that belonged to Byzantium. By the end of the 7th century. they were already at Gibraltar, from where the path to Europe opened. At the beginning of the next century, they crossed the strait and began to subjugate the Iberian Peninsula. It was in their hands in a matter of years. For about seven years they conquered this part of Europe and held it in their hands for about seven centuries.

Stages of the conquest of Sasanian Iran. The first successes of the Arabs were especially stunning - they completely conquered vast Iran and 2/3 of the great Byzantium. They conducted military operations with their neighbors in different ways. The most fierce battles were in the Sasanian state, which was otherwise called the heir of ancient Persia. Its 20-year conquest is usually divided into three stages: 633-636, 637-644, 644-651. The first stage was decisive in many respects. It ended with one of the largest and most famous battles, which largely determined the further course of the conquests, the Battle of Cadiz.

How do we know about the Battle of Cadiz? The history of the Arabs and their conquests has found a place on the pages of many works in three languages: Greek, Arabic and Syriac. Of course, Arab authors left the most chronicles and stories. The most detailed account of the first three centuries of the history of the Muslim state came from an outstanding scholar-historian of the second half of the 9th - first quarter of the 10th century. Al-Tabari. He called his work “The History of Prophets and Kings” and collected in it everything that could be found in earlier authors.

Instructions of Caliph Abu Bakr. When the first caliph, who came to power after the death of Muhammad, sent on campaigns, he always instructed the soldiers that if Allah gives victory, then they should not be angry in a conquered city or village, mutilate the bodies of enemies, kill children, old people, and women. He forbade burning palm trees, fruit trees, and slaughtering more livestock than needed for food. In a word, he wanted Muslims not to loot, ordinary people to be less afraid of them and have no reason to hate them.

Arab army. It consisted of large associations. By the time of the Battle of Cadiz, the main units were the right and left wing, center, vanguard, and rearguard. In addition, the reserve, reconnaissance, infantry, archers, and camel caravan played a special role. Each large association was divided into small detachments. Often a detachment united members of one tribe or clan and had its own banner. The army was mixed: foot soldiers and cavalry. Initially, in the regions of Sasanian Iran, the Arabs adhered to a rule that came from military experience: do not go deep into foreign territory, give battle on the border of the steppe, in order to escape persecution in case of failure.

Events in the area of ​​the state that has the historical name of Iraq and in which Cadiz is located developed quickly. At first, they did not attach much importance to Arab raids, because they were always afraid of major wars with Byzantium, a powerful and formidable neighbor, especially since the Arabs lost in several battles. Things began to improve for the Arabs only after the Caliph himself turned to Muhammad’s closest companions and their sons with a request to join the Arab army and march towards Iraq. Within a few months, a fairly large army was assembled, although only 4 thousand soldiers set out from Medina, the main city of the Prophet Muhammad. Along the way, several more such detachments joined them, so that before the battle with the Persians, the army numbered 25-30 thousand people. It was divided into 10 battle groups, each of which knew exactly what it had to do. As always, the representative for the division of the spoils was with her. This time it was expected to be big. Therefore, the commissioner was appointed by the caliph himself.

Persian army. The Shah of Iran was alarmed. Having received a message about the appearance of a large Arab army, he ordered to gather a large army and put an end to the Arab attempts to seize foreign territories. Warriors gathered from all over Iran. And there were about 40 thousand, plus more than 30 war elephants.

Neither the Arabs nor the Persians were in a hurry to start the main battle. They tried to negotiate, during which the Arabs demanded to divide all the lands and accept Islam, and the Persians categorically rejected all this, because they could not imagine that the impoverished Arabs would live and rule with them on equal terms. Both armies sent forward detachments, between which small battles took place. Sometimes civilians were also attacked. One day, the Arabs attacked a wedding train, killed the head of the guard, and seized jewelry, a harem and servants. This lasted for three or four months. At the same time, not only the Arabs, but also the Persian soldiers behaved with the local residents as in a conquered country, first of all they stole livestock. The Arabs did not really follow Abu Bakr's instructions. Often the local population bought them off with property, and if they did not want to do this, the Arabs could kill, take captive, and destroy the house.

Camp near Cadiz. This city was located on the edge of the desert, just between the fertile land of the Persians and the rocky steppe of the Arabs, which could save them in case of defeat. The capital of the Persians was very close to it. Therefore, it was important for the Arabs to make Cadiz theirs. Towards the end of November they approached it and set up camp. The Persians sent there, under the guise of a merchant, a spy who knew Arabic. When he approached the camp, he saw one of the Arabs. He sat outside the camp, eating bread and cleaning insects from his clothes. The scout spoke to him in Arabic, asking him: “What are you doing?” He replied: “As you can see, I bring in new things and take out old things and kill enemies.” The scout was cunning, he understood the riddle and was very upset. He said to himself : “The new people come in, and the old people come out, and the Persians are killed.”

But when he returned to the Persian camp, he said out loud to everyone: “I saw an ugly people, barefoot, naked, hungry, but very brave, the rest you know.” And then he approached the military leader, secretly revealed everything he saw and heard and guessed.

The Persians together, unanimously reached Cadiz and began to prepare for battle with the Arabs. Contemporaries define the day the battle began in different ways. Now historians have come to the conclusion that it was the end of September 636. The Persians fielded their entire army of 40 thousand people. They placed special hope in war elephants, powerful and terrifying to the Arabs, who had not seen such animals before the start of the war with the Sassanids. The Persians chained the mercenary warriors so that they would not try to flee from the battlefield. The Persians communicated with their capital with the help of messengers who carried and brought letters and orders.

Start of the battle. First day. The battle, as usual, began with duels. Before this, Muslims read the prescribed prayers and a special chapter from their Holy Book - the Koran, which is called “War”.

After the fights, the Persians released all the elephants onto the battlefield at once - 18 were in the center, 7 on one flank, and the same number on the other. The Arab cavalry retreated, but the infantry held out until fresh forces arrived.

The battle raged for 3 days and 3 evenings until darkness. Only in the morning after the first bloody day did both sides take a break to collect and bury many dead soldiers. The wounded were handed over to the women. But by noon the battle flared up again.

Standard bearers, drummers and
trumpeters of the Arab army

Already on the first day, despite the horror, the Arabs managed to damage most of the elephant towers. The bravest Muslims gouged out their eyes with spears or cut off their trunks. In addition, the Muslims themselves decided to scare the Persians, or rather, their horses. They built some kind of palanquin-tents on their camels, so that the horses began to snore and shy away.

On the very first day, the famous battle flag of Iran, covered with glorious legends, and decorated with precious stones, fell into the hands of the Arabs. This banner, as the Iranians believed, once belonged to the legendary blacksmith hero Kaveh. He raised people to fight against the foreign villain-tyrant Zahhak, who seized the royal throne in Iran. The invader ruled for a thousand years and established a kingdom of evil. Kava led the people, making a leather blacksmith's apron as a banner, and overthrew the villain.

Third and fourth days. The third day remained in the memory of the participants of the event as the “day of bitterness.” The Persians again sent elephants into battle. Now they were accompanied by foot soldiers and horsemen for protection. But the Arabs still found a way to hit the trunks and eyes of the two main elephants, and they turned back in a rage and dragged the rest with them. By evening, most of the Arab horsemen dismounted to defeat the Persian foot soldiers. The battle continued until complete darkness. That evening, the tenacity of the Muslims broke the Persian army.

The next morning the warriors fought with all their strength. At the same time, a strong wind began to blow in the faces of the Persians, which brought with it clouds of black dust. The hurricane tore off and threw into the water the canopy that was stretched over the throne of the Persian commander. And then the Arabs made their way to him and killed him. The death of the commander, naturally, caused confusion in the Persian army. It began to recede. There was a wide stream on the way, and the soldiers drowned while crossing. It was easiest for the Arabs to finish off those warriors who were chained. Here even women took spears in their hands and took the lives of enemies. In the middle of the last, fourth day of the battle, the Arabs captured Cadiz. The victory came at a high price. On the last day and night alone, 6 thousand people died, in addition, in the previous days, another 2500. Almost a third of the army died at Cadiz, not to mention the wounded. Almost twice as many Persians died as Arabs.

The Arabs took not only the precious banner, but also so many horses that from that time on their army became completely mounted. Let's not forget that each warrior had to have at least two or three horses.

There was another important result. It was here that they learned to use siege weapons.

Arabs consolidate victory: Ctesiphon. The victory at Cadiz opened the way to the capital of Iran - Ctesiphon. But the Arabs were in no hurry to get there. They rested for two months and gathered new strength. A messenger was sent to the Caliph for orders. He ordered an attack on the capital. But do not take women and children with you.

An important defense of Ctesiphon was the Tigris River. The Persians cut off all the bridges across it so that the Arabs could not cross to the other side. One shore was separated from the other by as much as 300 meters. But the Arabs were not afraid. They were full of joy and strength after the victory at Cadiz. And therefore they admired the view of the huge and rich city and said to each other: “God Allah, who helped us on land, will save us on water.” First, a detachment of volunteers, and then the rest, rode into a convenient place directly on horseback into the Tigris, and every single one of them crossed, not a single animal died. The warriors supported each other, the weaker were tied to the stronger. Ctesiphon surrendered almost without a fight. But it was one of the greatest capitals of the Middle Ages. There was not a soul on the streets of the city: its inhabitants fled. The spoils exceeded the imagination of the Arabs. Countless amounts of carpets, dishes, and goods fell into their hands. Some of the Arabs exchanged gold for silver, not knowing which was more expensive. Someone salted food with precious incense.

They could not figure out what to do with the magnificent carpet, measuring 30 by 30 m, i.e. 900 sq. m. He covered the throne room of the ruler of Iran. A blooming garden was embroidered on it in gold, silver, and precious stones. It was sent to the caliph in Medina, but there they nevertheless divided it into pieces, because there was no such hall where it could be spread out in all its glory. The first caliph lived almost as modestly as an ordinary warrior.

And in Ctesiphon, the commissioner for the division of spoils had to work hard. After all, things were first assessed, and then they were divided. They even organized auctions and sales, and sometimes local residents took part in them. One share went to the infantryman, three to the cavalryman.

The meaning of the Arab victory at Cadiz. It became a decisive event and opened the way to other cities. It took just over a decade to conquer all of Iran. In 651, the last “ruler of Iran, the “king of kings” (Shah-in-Shah) was killed, and soon his state fell. He was only 16 years old, and fate had a dramatic destiny in store for him. After the capture of the capital, he wandered throughout the country , stayed in one city and then in another. In reality, he did not control military operations. According to one legend, he was killed by a miller, with whom he found shelter for jewelry and clothes.

This is how one of the youngest rulers and one of the oldest states perished.

But his culture, his cities, his economy did not perish. The Arabs began to eagerly learn everything, and then teach others. In this regard, their conquests in their scope and degree of influence on world culture were one of the most important events of the Middle Ages.

6 475

“When they appeared before Jalut (Goliath) and his army, they said: “Our Lord! Show us patience, strengthen our feet and help us achieve victory over unbelievers."
(Koran. Second Sura. The Cow (Al-Baqarah). Semantic translation into Russian by E. Kuliev)

Even the Roman emperors made it a rule to recruit auxiliary units of light cavalry from the Arabs, residents of the Arabian Peninsula. Following them, the Byzantines continued this practice. However, repelling the attacks of nomads in the north, they could hardly even imagine that in the first half of the 7th century, numerous armed detachments of Arabs, moving on camels, horses and on foot, would break out of Arabia and turn into a serious threat for them in the south.

At the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th century, a wave of Arab conquerors captured Syria and Palestine, Iran and Mesopotamia, Egypt and areas of Central Asia. In their campaigns, the Arabs reached Spain in the west, the Indus and Syr Darya rivers in the east, the Caucasus Range in the north, and in the south they reached the shores of the Indian Ocean and the barren sands of the Sahara Desert. On the territory they conquered, a state arose, united not only by the power of the sword, but also by faith - a new religion, which they called Islam!
Muhammad (on horseback) receives the consent of the Bani Nadir clan to leave Medina. Miniature from the book of Jami al-Tawarikh, written by Rashid al-Din in Tabriz, Persia, 1307 AD.

But what was the reason for such an unprecedented rise in military affairs among the Arabs, who in a short time managed to create a power greater than the empire of Alexander the Great? There are several answers here, and all of them, one way or another, stem from local conditions. Arabia is mostly desert or semi-desert, although there are extensive pastures suitable for horses and camels. Despite the fact that there is not enough water, there are places here where sometimes you just need to rake the sand with your hands to get to the groundwater. In southwest Arabia there are two rainy seasons every year, so settled agriculture has been developed there since ancient times.

Among the sands, where water made its way to the surface, there were oases of date palms. Their fruits, along with camel milk, served as food for nomadic Arabs. The camel was also the main source of livelihood for the Arab. Even for murder they paid in camels. For a man killed in a fight, it was necessary to give as many as one hundred camels in order to avoid blood feud on the part of his relatives! But the horse, contrary to popular belief, did not play a significant role. The horse needed good food, and most importantly, a lot of clean, fresh water. True, in conditions of lack of food and water, the Arabs taught their horses to eat anything - when there was no water, they were given camel milk, fed them with dates, sweet pies and even... fried meat. But Arabian horses never learned to eat camel food, so only very wealthy people could keep them, while camels were available to everyone.

The entire population of the Arabian Peninsula consisted of separate tribes. At their head, like the northern nomads, were their own leaders, who were called sheikhs by the Arabs. They also had large herds, and in their tents, covered with Persian carpets, one could see beautiful harness and precious weapons, beautiful utensils and delicious treats. Tribal enmity weakened the Arabs, and it was especially bad for the merchants, whose essence of life was the caravan trade between Iran, Byzantium and India. Ordinary Bedouin nomads robbed caravans and settled peasants, because of which the rich Arab elite suffered very large losses. Circumstances required an ideology that would smooth out social contradictions, put an end to the reigning anarchy and direct the pronounced militancy of the Arabians to external goals. This is what Muhammad gave. At first, ridiculed for his obsession and having survived the blows of fate, he managed to unite his fellow countrymen under the green banner of Islam. This is not the place to discuss this respected man, who openly admitted his weaknesses, renounced the glory of a miracle worker and well understood the needs of his followers, or to talk about his teachings.

Muhammad's army fights the Meccan army in 625 at the Battle of Uhud, in which Muhammad was wounded. This miniature is from a Turkish book around 1600.
For us, the most important thing is that, unlike other, earlier religions, including Christianity, Islam turned out to be much more concrete and convenient, first of all, because it first of all established the order of life on earth, and only then promised someone paradise , and for whom the afterlife torments in the next world.

The moderate tastes of the Arabs also corresponded to the rejection of pork, wine, gambling and usury, which ruined the poor. Trade and, which was very important for the warlike Arabians, “holy war” (jihad) against infidels, that is, non-Muslims, were recognized as godly deeds.

The spread of Islam and the unification of the Arabs happened very quickly, and troops were already being equipped to march on foreign countries when the Prophet Muhammad died in 632. But the unconfused Arabs immediately chose his “deputy” - the caliph, and the invasion began.

Already under the second caliph Omar (634–644), the holy war brought Arab nomads to Asia Minor and the Indus Valley. Then they captured fertile Iraq, western Iran, and established their dominance in Syria and Palestine. Then came the turn of Egypt - the main grain granary of Byzantium, and at the beginning of the 8th century the Maghreb - its African possessions to the west of Egypt. After which the Arabs conquered most of the Visigothic kingdom in Spain.

In November 636, the Byzantine army of Emperor Heraclius attempted to defeat the Muslims at the Battle of the Yarmouk River (a tributary of the Jordan) in Syria. It is believed that the Byzantines had 110 thousand soldiers, and the Arabs only 50, but they resolutely attacked them several times in a row, and finally broke their resistance and put them to flight (See for more details: Nicolle D. Yarmyk 630 AD. The Muslim conguest of Syria. L.: Osprey, 1994)
The Arabs lost 4,030 people killed, but the losses of the Byzantines were so great that their army practically ceased to exist. The Arabs then besieged Jerusalem, which surrendered to them after a two-year siege. Along with Mecca, this city has become an important shrine for all Muslims.

The dynasties of caliphs replaced each other one after another, and the conquests continued and continued. As a result, by the middle of the 8th century. a truly grandiose Arab Caliphate* was formed - a state with a territory many times larger than the entire Roman Empire, which had significant territories in Europe, Asia and Africa. Several times the Arabs tried to take Constantinople and kept it under siege. But the Byzantines managed to repel them on land, while at sea they destroyed the Arab fleet with “Greek fire” - a flammable mixture that included oil, which caused it to burn even on the water, turning the ships of their opponents into floating fires.
It is clear that the period of victorious wars of the Arabs could not last forever, and already in the 8th century their advance to the West and East was stopped. In 732, at the Battle of Poitiers in France, the army of Arabs and Berbers was defeated by the Franks. In 751, near Talas (now the city of Dzhambul in Kazakhstan), the Chinese defeated them.

For a special tax, the caliphs guaranteed the local population not only personal freedom, but also freedom of religion! Christians and Jews were also considered (as adherents of monotheism and “people of the Book,” i.e., the Bible and the Koran) quite close to Muslims, while pagans were subjected to merciless persecution. This policy turned out to be very reasonable, although the Arab conquests were mainly facilitated not so much by diplomacy as by the force of arms.

Arab warriors should not be imagined only as horsemen, wrapped from head to toe in all white, and with curved sabers in their hands. Let's start with the fact that they didn't have any trace of crooked sabers at that time! All Muslim warriors depicted in Arab miniatures of 1314 - 1315. next to the Prophet Muhammad during his campaign against the Jews of Kheibar, armed with long and straight double-edged swords. They are narrower than contemporary European swords, they have a different crosshair, but these are actually swords, and not sabers at all.

Almost all of the first caliphs also had swords that have survived to the present day. However, judging by the collection of these blades in the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, the Prophet Muhammad still had a saber. It was called “Zulfi-kar”, and its blade had an elmanyu - a broadening located at the end of the blade, the weight of which gave the blow much greater force. However, it is believed that she is not of Arab origin. One of the swords of Caliph Osman also had a straight blade, although it has one blade, like a saber.

Interestingly, the banner of the Prophet Muhammad at the very beginning was also not green, but black! All other caliphs, as well as various Arab tribes, had banners of the corresponding color. The first were called “laiva”, the second – “raya”. One and the same leader could have two banners: one - his own, the other - the tribal one.

We also will not see any defensive weapons, except for small round shields, in the above-mentioned miniature of the Arabs, although this does not mean anything. The fact is that wearing protective armor under clothing was even more widespread in the East than in Europe, and the Arabs were no exception. It is well known that Arab craftsmen were famous not only for their bladed weapons, which they produced from Indian damask steel, but also for their chain mail armor**, the best of which were made in Yemen. Since Islam prohibited images of people and animals, weapons were decorated with floral patterns, and later, in the 11th century, with inscriptions. When Damascus became the main city of the Muslim world, it also became a center for the production of weapons.

It is not for nothing that blades made of especially high-quality steel covered with patterns were colloquially called “Damascus”, although they were often produced in a variety of places. The high qualities of Damascus steel were explained in the East not only by the technology of its production, but also by a special method of hardening the metal. The master, having removed the red-hot blade from the forge with tongs, passed it to the rider, who was sitting on horseback at the door of the workshop. Taking the blade, held in tongs, the rider, without wasting a second, launched the horse at full speed and rushed like the wind, allowing the air to flow around him and cool him, as a result of which hardening occurred. The weapons were richly decorated with gold and silver incisions, precious stones and pearls, even in excessive quantities in the 7th century. The Arabs were especially fond of turquoise, which they obtained from the Sinai Peninsula, as well as from Persia. The cost of such weapons was extremely high. According to Arab sources, a well-crafted sword could cost up to a thousand gold denarii. If we take into account the weight of a gold denarius (4.25 g), it turns out that the cost of the sword was equivalent to 4.250 kg of gold! In fact, it was a fortune.

The Byzantine Emperor Leo, reporting on the Arab army, mentioned only cavalry, consisting of horsemen with long spears, horsemen with throwing spears, horsemen with bows and heavily armed horsemen. Among the Arabs themselves, the cavalry was divided into al-muhajirs - heavily armed and al-sansars - lightly armed warriors.

However, the Arab army also had infantry. In any case, at first the Arabs did not have enough horses so much that in 623, during the Battle of Badr, two people sat on each horse, and only later the number of riders increased. As for heavy armor, it is unlikely that anyone among the Arabs wore it constantly, but the entire stock of protective weapons was used in battle. Each horseman had a long spear, a mace, one, or even two swords, one of which could be a konchar - the same sword, but with a narrow three- or four-sided blade, most convenient for defeating the enemy through ringed armor.

Having become familiar with military affairs from the Persians and Byzantines, the Arabs, like them, began to use horse armor, as well as protective armor made of metal plates, tied together and worn over chain mail. It is interesting that at first the Arabs did not know stirrups, but very quickly learned to use them, and they themselves began to make first-class stirrups and saddles. The Arab cavalry could dismount and fight on foot, using their long spears as pikes, like Western European infantry. During the Umayyad dynasty, Arab tactics resembled Byzantine ones. Moreover, their infantry was also divided into heavy and light, consisting of the poorest Arab archers.

The cavalry became the main striking force of the army of the caliphate during the Abbasid dynasty. It consisted of heavily armed horse archers in chain mail and lamellar armor. Their shields were often of Tibetan origin, made of well-crafted leather. Now the majority of this army were Iranians, not Arabs, as well as people from Central Asia, where at the very beginning of the 9th century the independent Samanid state was formed, breaking away from the caliphate of the rulers of Bukhara. It is interesting that, although by the middle of the 10th century the Arab Caliphate had already broken up into a number of separate states, the Arabs did not decline in military affairs.

Fundamentally new troops arose, consisting of ghulams - young slaves specially purchased for use in military service. They were carefully trained in military affairs and armed with funds from the treasury. At first, ghulams played the role of the praetorian guard (personal bodyguards of the emperors of Rome) under the person of the caliph. Gradually, the number of ghulams increased, and their units began to be widely used in the army of the caliphate. Poets who described their weapons noted that they shone, as if “consisting of many mirrors.” Contemporary historians noted that it looked “like Byzantine,” that is, people and horses were dressed in armor and blankets made of metal plates (Nicolle D. Armies of the Caliphates 862 - 1098. L.: Osprey, 1998. P. 15).

Now the Arab troops were an army of people who had the same faith, similar customs and language, but continued to retain their national forms of weapons, the best of which were gradually adopted by the Arabs. From the Persians they borrowed scabbards of swords, in which, in addition to the sword itself, darts, a dagger or a knife were placed, and from Central Asia - a saber...

Eighth Crusade 1270 Louis IX's crusaders land in Tunisia. One of the few medieval miniatures in which eastern warriors are depicted with sabers in their hands. Miniature from The Chronicle of Saint Denis. Around 1332 – 1350 (British Library)

Complex tactical formations were used in the battle, with infantry consisting of spearmen placed in front, followed by archers and javelin throwers, then cavalry and (when possible) war elephants. The ghulam cavalry was the main striking force of this formation and was located on the flanks. In combat, the first weapon used was the spear, then the sword, and finally the mace.
Mounted units were divided according to the weight of their armor. The horsemen had monotonous weapons, since warriors on horses with protective armor made of metal plates could hardly be used to pursue a retreating enemy, and the felt blankets of lightly armed horsemen were not sufficient protection from arrows and swords during an attack against infantry.

Indian shield (dhal) made of steel and bronze. Mughal Empire. (Royal Ontario Museum, Canada)

In the Maghreb countries (in North Africa), the influence of Iran and Byzantium was less noticeable. Local types of weapons were preserved here, and the Berbers, the nomads of North Africa, although they converted to Islam, continued to use light darts rather than heavy spears.

The way of life of the Berbers, known to us from the descriptions of travelers of that time, was closely related to the conditions of their existence. Any nomad from distant Mongolistan would have found here almost the same thing as in his homeland, in any case, the order there and there were very similar.

“The king... gives people an audience in a tent to examine incoming complaints; Around the tent during the audience there are ten horses under gilded veils, and behind the king there are ten young men with leather shields and swords decorated with gold. To his right stand the sons of the nobility of his country in beautiful clothes, with gold threads woven into their hair. The ruler of the city sits in front of the king on the ground, and viziers also sit on the ground around him. At the entrance to the tent there are purebred dogs with gold and silver collars, to which many gold and silver plaques are attached; they do not take their gaze off the king, protecting him from any attacks. The royal audience is announced by the beating of drums. The drum, called "daba", is a long, hollow piece of wood. Approaching the king, his fellow believers fall to their knees and sprinkle dust on their heads. This is their greeting to the king,” reported one of the travelers who visited the Berber tribes of North Africa.

Black African warriors took an active part in the Arab conquests, which is why Europeans often confused them with Arabs. Negro slaves were even specially bought in order to make warriors out of them. There were especially many such warriors in Egypt, where at the beginning of the 10th century they made up almost half of the entire army. The personal guards of the Egyptian Fatimid dynasty were also recruited from them, whose warriors each had a richly decorated pair of darts and shields with convex silver plaques.

In general, in Egypt during this period of time, infantry prevailed over cavalry. In battle, its units were organized along national lines and used their own types of weapons. For example, the warriors of northwestern Sudan used bows and javelins, but did not have shields. And other warriors had large oval shields from East Africa, which were said to be made of elephant skin. In addition to throwing weapons, a sabardarah (eastern halberd) five cubits long was used, three cubits being occupied by a wide steel blade, often slightly curved. On the opposite border of the Arab possessions, Tibetans fought with large white leather shields and quilted protective clothing (See for more details: Nicolle D. The Armies of Islam 7th - 11th centuries. L.: Osprey. 1982.).

By the way, quilted clothes, despite the heat, were worn by city militias - Arabs, and also by many African warriors, which is quite surprising. Thus, in the 11th century, residents of the African state of Kanem-Bornu, located in the Lake Chad region, adopted Islam. Already in the 13th century it was a real “equestrian empire”, numbering up to 30,000 mounted warriors, dressed... in thick quilted armor made of cotton fabrics and felt. These “knights of Africa” used quilted blankets to protect not only themselves, but also their horses until the end of the 19th century - they apparently found them so convenient. The warriors of the Begharmi people, neighboring the Bornu, also wore quilted armor, which they reinforced with rows of rings sewn on them. But the Bornu used small squares of fabric sewn on them, inside which there were metal plates, so that the outside of their armor resembled a patchwork quilt with a two-color geometric pattern. The horse's equestrian equipment included a copper forehead protector lined with leather, as well as exquisite breastplates, collars and bristles.

As for the Moors (as the Europeans called the Arabs who conquered Spain), their weapons began to be in many ways similar to the weapons of the Frankish warriors with whom they constantly encountered in days of peace and war. The Moors also had two types of cavalry: light - Berber-Andalusian, which even in the 10th century did not use stirrups and threw darts at the enemy, and heavy, from head to toe dressed in a European-style chain mail hauberk, which in the 11th century became the main armor of horsemen and in Christian Europe. In addition, Moorish warriors also used bows. In addition, in Spain it was worn slightly differently - over clothing, while in Europe it was worn with a surcoat (a short-sleeved cape), and in the Middle East and North Africa - caftans. Shields were usually round, and made of leather, metal or wood, which were again covered with leather.

Shields made of Damascus steel, cold forged from iron and possessing high hardness, were of particular value in the Arab East. During the work, cracks formed on their surface, which, in the form of a notch, were filled with gold wire and formed patterns of irregular shape. Shields made of rhinoceros skin, which were made in India and among African peoples, were also valued, and they were very brightly and colorfully decorated with painting, gold and silver.

This kind of shield had a diameter of no more than 60 cm and had extreme resistance to a sword strike. Very small shields made of rhinoceros skin, the diameter of which did not exceed more than 40 cm, were also used as fist shields, i.e., they could deliver blows in battle. Finally, there were shields made of thin fig tree twigs, which were intertwined with silver braid or colored silk threads. The result was graceful arabesques, which is why they looked very elegant and were highly durable. All round leather shields were usually convex. At the same time, the fastenings of the belts by which they were held were covered with plaques on the outer surface, and a quilted pillow or fabric was placed inside the shield, which softened the blows inflicted on it.

Another type of Arab shield, the adarga, was so widespread in the 13th and 14th centuries that it was used by Christian troops in Spain itself, and then came to France, Italy and even England, where such shields were used until the 15th century. The old Moorish adarga was in the shape of a heart or two fused ovals and was made from several layers of very tough, durable leather. They wore it on a belt over the right shoulder, and on the left they held it by the fist handle.

Since the surface of the adarga was flat, it was very easy to decorate, so the Arabs decorated these shields not only on the outside, but also on the inside.
Along with the Norman knights, the Byzantines and the Slavs, at the beginning of the 11th century, the Arabs used shields that had the shape of a “reverse drop”. Apparently, this shape turned out to be convenient for the Arabs, although they usually cut off the sharpest lower corner. Let us note the well-established exchange of weapons, during which the most successful forms were passed on to different peoples not only in the form of military trophies, but through ordinary purchase and sale.

The Arabs rarely suffered defeats on the battlefields. For example, during the war against Iran, what seemed especially terrible to them was not the heavily armed Iranian horsemen, but the war elephants, which with their trunks snatched warriors from the saddle and threw them to the ground at their feet. The Arabs had never seen them before and believed at first that they were not animals, but cleverly made military machines, against which it was useless to fight. But soon they learned to fight elephants and ceased to fear them as much as at the beginning. For a long time, the Arabs did not know how to take fortified cities by storm and had no idea about siege-assault technology. It’s not for nothing that Jerusalem surrendered to them only after a two-year siege, Caesar held out for seven, and the Arabs unsuccessfully besieged Constantinople for five whole years! But later they learned a lot from the Byzantines themselves and began to use the same technology as they did, i.e. in this case they had to borrow the experience of an older civilization.

The initial letter "P" depicting the Sultan of Damascus Nur ad-Din. It is interesting that the Sultan is depicted with bare legs, but wearing chain mail and a helmet. He is pursued by two knights: Godfrey Martel and Hugues de Louisignan the Elder, wearing full chainmail armor and helmets similar to those depicted in the Macijewski Bible. Miniature from "The History of Outremer". (British Library)

Muhammad at the Battle of Badr. Miniature from the 15th century.

Thus, we see that the armies of the Arab East differed from European armies primarily not in that some had heavy weapons, while others had light ones. Costumes similar to quilted kaftans can be seen on the “Bayeux Canvas”. But the mounted warriors of sultry Africa also had them. Byzantine, Iranian, and Arab cavalrymen had scaly (lamellar) armor and horse blankets, and precisely in that era when Europeans did not even think about all this. The main difference was that in the East infantry and cavalry complemented each other, while in the West there was a continuous process of displacing infantry by cavalry. Already in the 11th century, the infantrymen accompanying the knights were essentially just servants. No one tried to properly train and arm them, whereas in the East quite a lot of attention was paid to the uniform armament of troops and their training. The heavy cavalry was supplemented by detachments of light cavalry, which were used for reconnaissance and initiation of battle. Both there and here professional warriors served in the heavily armed cavalry. But the Western knight, although at that time he was lighter armed than similar warriors of the East, had much more independence, since in the absence of good infantry and light cavalry it was he who was the main force on the battlefield.

Prophet Muhammad admonishes his family before the Battle of Badr. Illustration from Jami al-Tawarikh's General History, 1305 – 1314. (Khalili Collections, Tabriz, Iran)

Arab horsemen, just like European ones, needed to be able to accurately hit the enemy with a spear, and for this they needed to constantly train in the same way. In addition to the European technique of attacking with a spear at the ready, eastern horsemen learned to hold a spear with both hands at the same time, holding the reins in their right hand. Such a blow even tore apart a two-layer chain mail shell, with the tip of the spear coming out of the back!

To develop accuracy and force of blow, the game of birjas was used, during which riders at full gallop struck with spears at a column made up of many wooden blocks. It was necessary to knock out individual blocks with spear blows, and in such a way that the column itself did not crumble.

The Arabs besiege Messina. Miniature from the “History of the Byzantine Emperors in Constantinople from 811 to 1057, written by Curopalate John Skylitzes.” (National Library of Spain, Madrid)

But their similarities did not end there only in weapons. Arab knights, like, for example, their European counterparts, had extensive land holdings, which were not only hereditary, but also granted to them for military service. They were called iqta in Arabic in the 10th–11th centuries. turned entirely into military fiefs, similar to the land holdings of the knights of Western Europe and professional warriors of many other states on the territory of Eurasia.

It turns out that the knightly class was formed in the West and in the East almost simultaneously, but for a long time they were unable to measure their strength. The exception was Spain, where the border war between Christians and Muslims did not subside for a single moment.

On October 23, 1086, a few miles from Badajoz, near the town of Zalaka, an army of Spanish Moors met in battle with the royal knights of the Castilian king Alfonso VI. By this time, feudal fragmentation had already reigned in the lands of the Arabs, but in the face of a threat from Christians, the emirs of southern Spain managed to forget their many years of enmity and called for help from their African co-religionists - the Almoravids. The Arabs of Andalusia considered these warlike nomadic tribes to be barbarians. Their ruler, Yusuf ibn Teshufin, seemed to the emirs to be a fanatic, but there was nothing to be done, and they opposed the Castilians under his command.

Armor of a Sudanese warrior 1500 (Higgins Museum of Armor and Weapons, Worchester, Massachusetts, USA)

The battle began with an attack by Christian knightly cavalry, against which Yusuf sent infantry detachments of Andalusian Moors. And when the knights managed to overthrow them and drove them to the camp, Yusuf calmly listened to the news of this and only said: “Do not rush to help them, let their ranks thin out even more - they, like Christian dogs, are also our enemies.”

Meanwhile, the Almoravid cavalry was waiting in the wings. She was strong both in numbers and, above all, in discipline, which violated all the traditions of knightly warfare with its group battles and duels on the battlefield. The moment came when the knights, carried away by the pursuit, scattered throughout the field, and then Berber horsemen attacked them from the rear and from the flanks. The Castilians, sitting on already tired and lathered horses, were surrounded and defeated. King Alfonso, at the head of a detachment of 500 horsemen, managed to escape from the encirclement and with great difficulty escaped pursuit.

This victory and the subsequent unification of all the emirates under the rule of Yusuf made such a strong impression that there was no end to the rejoicing of the Arabs, and Christian preachers beyond the Pyrenees immediately issued a call for a crusade against the infidels. A full ten years earlier than the well-known first crusade against Jerusalem, the crusader army was assembled, invaded the Muslim lands of Spain and... was defeated there again.

*The Caliphate is a Muslim feudal theocracy headed by the Caliph, a secular-religious ruler who was considered the legitimate successor of Muhammad. The Arab caliphate, centered in Medina, lasted only until 661. Then power passed to the Umayyads (661-750), who moved the capital of the caliphate to Damascus, and from 750 to the Abbasids, who moved it to Baghdad.

**The oldest mention of chain mail is found even in the Koran, where it is said that God softened the iron with the hands of Daud and at the same time said: “Make a perfect armor from it and connect it thoroughly with rings.” The Arabs called chain mail that way - the armor of Daoud.

Life consists for the most part of unremarkable events. They are ordinary and consistently repeat the usual order of things. But in their series, sometimes unremarkable events occur at first glance, but subsequently acquire enormous significance, affecting the fate of many millions of people, and radically changing the course of historical events and the face of civilization. Such an event, which had a profound impact on all aspects of life and radically changed their fate, was the birth in distant Arabia, in the city of Mecca, into a family with roots in a nomadic environment, the boy Muhammad. His parents Abdallah and Amina were, according to legend, distant descendants of Ismail, the ancestor of the nomadic Arabs, but they died early. The boy grew up in his uncle's family. Noble origins were valued, but did not provide any special advantages.
The Sons of the Desert, nomads from the Quraysh clan, had changed by this time. Ownership of the city and sacred places, where once, according to legend, their legendary ancestor Ibrahim (Abraham) erected the Kaaba - the heavenly temple, gave them a certain income. Religious holidays, Arab pilgrimages to holy places, as well as transit trade turned former nomads into merchants. Of course not all, but some of them became rich and pushed aside the old aristocratic clans. The tribal customs, which required equality and mutual support, no longer suited them, and perhaps they did not show outright contempt for the poor, but they were not ashamed of their wealth. Every year they equipped caravans to their neighbors: the Romans (Lebanon), to Iraq (this is a distorted name for Iran), to the south, or as it was then called, Happy Arabia.
All other Arabs lived their lives, that is, what they had. We didn’t set big goals for ourselves. Moreover, when a man appeared among them, publicly announcing to everyone that life needed to be decisively changed and built on new principles, the main of which was monotheism and the refusal to worship idols, they simply ridiculed him. The one who was destined for a great historical role, at 45 years old after the first public announcement of his goals and objectives, experienced nothing but humiliation. People not only rejected him, but showered him with ridicule for a long time. But, nevertheless, this sermon gave a certain result: a confrontation arose between the first Muslims and pagans, which resulted in a struggle. Nobody wanted to give in. Although Muhammad was firmly convinced of the new faith, at first the situation was far from favorable. The Muslims were few in number, but the opponents were many more, and they were also aggressive. But the opponents differed qualitatively. Muslims fought for their faith and were ideologically united, but the other “party” did not have such ideas. It was a gathering of different people. Some of them were motivated by self-interest and saw Islam as a threat to their power in the city. Others became involved in the struggle only because they felt hostility to new ideas, and most importantly to a fellow tribesman who declared himself a messenger of God.

(Note 7. The history of Islam is not only the history of the birth and victory of a new faith, but it is also the history of the eternal struggle between the new and the old. As a rule, the old system at first looks confident and omnipotent. The new one, on the contrary, looks weak and seems , doomed to failure. In this story, much depended not only on the personality of Muhammad, the integrity and originality of his ideology, but also on the will of the first Muslims. They showed enviable persistence in defending their ideas. His opponents did not have a coherent ideological system. ideological struggle, they lost the support of the people. Obviously, such a development of events could only happen in conditions of broad democracy).

Muhammad managed to unite the Arabs of Central and Western Arabia on the principles of Islam. He was faced with new tasks. In Soviet historical literature, which did not favor Islam, one could read that Muhammad, pushed by the wealthy Meccan elite, directed the Muslims to conquer. But in fact, this elite reacted warily, if not cowardly, to the new action. And they did not want to meet either the Roman or the Iranian “Goliaths” on the battlefield. It was not like the bazaar they were used to. And indeed, the first trip outside the “island of the Arabs,” which they set out on with great enthusiasm, ended unsuccessfully. When meeting with the regular army of Byzantium in the length of Muta (Jordan), the army wavered. The commanders, setting an example, went into battle with their swords drawn, but the army did not.
It took time for them to decide to do this again, because there could be no other outcome. Neither fear of the mighty power of two great empires, nor a war on two fronts frightened the warriors of Allah. The Romans were the first to be defeated, and the entire Middle East and Egypt, the Maghreb countries and Spain found themselves in the hands of the Arabs. Victories over the Iranians brought the Muslims power over vast territories of the East. As heirs, they entered Central Asia and here they first encountered the Chinese. The struggle for possession of the East was long; in addition to the Arabs, the Chinese also made claims on its territory. But in 751, in a stubborn battle with the Chinese army in the valley of the Talas River, the Arabs, together with the Turks, defeated them and delayed Chinese expansion to the west for almost a millennium.

(Note 8. The Arab wars had the same goal as the previous ones, that is, they were aggressive. But their goals were declared differently, they had a clearly expressed ideological orientation. This is how the vast Arab civilization developed, uniting many peoples within a single culture. Such a unification on the test turned out to be stronger and more tenacious in comparison with the unification of the nomads. Subsequently, the Arabs wrote with surprise about the Turks: “They fight neither for faith, nor for interpretation (of the Koran), nor for the kingdom, nor for the kingdom. for the Kharaj, neither because of partiality for their tribe, nor because of rivalry (except because of women), nor because of anger, nor because of enmity, nor for their homeland and protecting their home... but truly they fight they (only) for the sake of robbery).

The struggle for possession of the Caucasus was no less easy. Armenia, Georgia, Aturpatkan (Azerbaijan) were relatively easily captured by 652, but the Khazars intervened in the struggle for the Caucasus. The first campaign of the Arabs against the Khazars in 653-654 was led by Abd-ar-Rahman. Having captured Derbent, the Arabs entered the country or possession of Belenjer (it is located in the valley of the Sulak River in Dagestan). The entrance to the river valley, where numerous Alan settlements were located, was closed by the powerful Belenjer fortress. The Arabs tried to take the city by storm for several days, but were defeated when help arrived. Their commander died, and the remnants of the army fled. This is how the Arabs and the inhabitants of the country of Belenjer met each other in battle for the first time. These were the Bulgars and Alans.
The outbreak of civil strife in the caliphate temporarily distracted the Arabs from the struggle for possession of the Caucasus. The Caucasian countries became independent and strengthened. Therefore, Prince Savir Alp-Ilteber (Alp is a Turkic hero, and Ilteber is a Turkic-Iranian military title), who wanted independence for his people from Khazar captivity, entered into an alliance with these states. The union was sealed by a dynastic marriage with the daughter of the Prince of Albania and the adoption of Christianity (apparently of the Monophysite persuasion). But the Khazars dealt harshly with him and his neighbors and imposed a heavy tribute on everyone. But it was a politically reckless move. The turmoil in the Caliphate ended, the Arabs returned, and war became inevitable.
The military successes of the Arabs began with the commander Jerrah Ibn Abdallah al-Hakam. In the first battle, which took place in 721, 25 thousand Arabs defeated the 40 thousand Khazar army. On the campaign to Belenjer, Jerrah met with the Belenjer army. The battle was desperate, but the Arabs prevailed. Jerrah showed mercy to the inhabitants and the prince of Belenjer. The city was not destroyed, and he returned his family to the prince. This was the beginning of the Islamization of the Bulgars.
The next campaign of the Arabs is directed against the Alans of the North Caucasus.

(Note 9. The population of the Caucasus is heterogeneous in language, but, nevertheless, has much in common in origin. Some of them have lived in these areas since ancient times, these are the inhabitants of Central Transcaucasia, Georgians and other peoples. Others came in deep historical times from the Middle East. Settling along the Caspian Sea and the shores of the Black Sea, they occupied the eastern and western slopes of the Caucasian ridge. From the north, the foothill Caucasian steppes were occupied by cattle breeders. "or "light") occupied the Caucasian steppes, but then they were conquered by the Central Asian Alans and entered their union. They not only took their name, but also mixed with them in the Middle Ages, the Caucasian Alans formed. , and the language is Eastern Iranian.
In the early Middle Ages, the Alans, in the fight against their eternal enemies the Huns, lost power in the steppe, but retained the steppes and mountain valleys of the Central Ciscaucasia. These are the steppes between the Kuban and Terek rivers and the mountain and foothill valleys of the Caucasus Range. The Eastern and Western Ciscaucasia were occupied by the Bulgars, but in the Eastern region Maskuts are also mentioned, probably descendants of the ancient Massagets, the ancestors of the Alans. It is interesting that the Sarmatians also lived in the west in the past, and the memory of the Circassians retained memories of the origin of some clans from the Sarmatians.
Alanian culture is basically Sarmatian, but sedentary. The Alans in the new place did not abandon traditional cattle breeding, but in the new conditions it began to have a transhumance character. In places where livestock was driven, they built settlements and engaged in farming. Like the Bulgars, they built fortresses and citadels, but they did it more skillfully. They were engaged in transit trade. One of the branches of the Great Silk Road passed through the North Caucasus. From this they had a certain income, and silks were used to decorate the costume. According to the generally accepted opinion, the creators of the modern mountain Caucasian costume are Alans and Circassians. It is based on an oriental type robe. Apparently, it was borrowed from the Central Asians through the Hephthalites. On their feet, like the Sarmatians, they wore ankle boots, tied at the ankles with a belt. Funeral rites are varied. Burials under mounds gave way to burials without mounds. Burials took place in catacombs, pits with shoulders, in linings and in stone crypts. In the catacombs, burials were collective in nature, that is, members of the same clan were buried here. According to religious views, the Alans were pagans, but their Christian neighbors did not give up attempts to convert them to their faith. It is known that Bishop Israil, in front of the astonished Alans, broke their pagan amulets and made crosses out of them. Like all believers, the Alans were obviously naive in matters of faith.
The Alans retained the traditional nomadic love for horses. Therefore, they always and everywhere appear as warrior-horses. The armament of the Alans was similar to the armament of their Sarmatian ancestors, that is, it was a horseman dressed in armor (chain mail), armed with a spear and a Sarmatian type sword, and also had a dagger and a bow with him. The weapons were supplemented by a mace, a battle ax and a lasso. From the 8th century, the Alans began to use the saber.
The early Middle Ages were dominated by Byzantium and Iran. The rivalry between them often resulted in wars. And each of them wanted to attract the Alans to their side. The Alans became part of Sasanian Iran; their king, like members of the Shahinshah's family, had the title of Shah.
With the strengthening of the Khazars, they came under their power. But the intrigues of the Byzantine court forced them to oppose the Khazars. The Khazars defeated them, but the Kagan did not execute the Alan king, but married him to his daughter. Apparently the Khazars were considered the strength of the Alans and valued this alliance).
In this war, the Arabs, taking advantage of the inactivity of the Khazars, wanted to rob the Kaganate and undermine its economic power. Alan was not spared. Their villages were plundered, and the population was taken into slavery. This forced the lowland Alans to leave to the north.
Apparently, after these events, the authority of the Khazars in the steppe fell. The final stage of the struggle for the Khazar Kagan was even more humiliating. The Arabs did not waste time capturing the capital; they penetrated deep into the rear of the Kaganate. It is known that they robbed the villages of the Burtases, the ancestors of the Mishars. S. Klyashtorny believes that they crossed the Idel (Kama) River and also robbed the villages of al-Sakaliba, a people of either Slavic or Baltic origin. Their settlements were located on the right bank of the Kama (the culture of this people was discovered near the village of Imen, hence its name Imenkovskaya culture). And then somewhere around here they defeated the Khazar army. Kagan was forced to convert to Islam. This happened in 737.
The results of the war were disastrous for the Kaganate. The size of the Kaganate was reduced, cities and villages that had flourished in the past, and all of them were surrounded by numerous gardens, were devastated. Handicraft production declined. People were either killed or taken into slavery. The survivors were forced to seek salvation. Many left their homeland forever and went to safe regions not affected by the war.

Seasoned in battle, animated by a religious enthusiasm that gave them the strength to despise death, Muslim troops crossed the borders of Arabia under the first caliph, Abu Bakr, and under the second caliph, Omar, at the same time waged victorious wars against the powerful sovereigns of the East, the Byzantine emperor and the Persian king. Persia (Iran) and Byzantium, which had recently fought among themselves for dominion over Western Asia, were now attacked from the south by a new enemy, whom they initially looked upon with contempt and who, taking advantage of their internal unrest, quickly overthrew the throne of the Persian king and took away many possessions from Byzantine emperor. They say that during the ten-year reign of Omar (634-644), the Saracens destroyed 36,000 cities, villages and fortresses, 4,000 Christian churches and Persian temples in the lands of infidels, and built 1,400 mosques.

Arab invasion of Iraq. "Battle of Chains", "Battle of Eyes" and "Battle of the Bridge"

Even under Abu Bekr, Osama, son of Zayd, resumed his campaign in Syria, interrupted by the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The Caliph sent him to conquer the rebellious Arab tribes of the Syrian border. Setting an example of humility and discipline to the soldiers, Abu Bekr went on foot to accompany the army and walked part of the way, not allowing the commander to get off the camel to mount it or walk next to it. Suppressing rebellions against Islam in Arabia itself, Abu Bekr gave a wider scope to campaigns for conquest. Commander Khalid, “the sword of God and the scourge of the infidels,” entered Iraq (632). The Persian (Iranian) state was then very weakened by civil strife and bad governance. Approaching the border, Khalid wrote to the Persian commander Hormuz: “Convert to Islam and you will be saved; grant yourself and your people our protection and give us tribute; Otherwise, blame only yourself, because I walk with warriors who love death no less than you love life.” Gormuz's response was a challenge to a duel. The troops met at Hafir; This battle is called by the Arabs the “Chain Battle” because the Persian warriors were connected to each other by chains. Both here and in the next three battles, the enemy troops were defeated by the skill of Khalid and the courage of the Muslims. On the banks of the Euphrates, so many prisoners were killed that the river turned red with their blood.

The black eagle, which was the banner of Khalid, became the terror of the infidels and inspired the Muslims with confidence in victory. Khalid approached the city of Hira, where the Arab Christian Lakhmid dynasty had reigned for several centuries, settling with its tribe west of Babylon on the outskirts of the desert under the supreme authority of the Persian state. The city leaders entered into negotiations with Khalid and bought peace for the citizens by agreeing to pay tribute; their example was followed by other Arabs of the Babylonian plain. As the Iranian troops left them, they submitted to the caliph, who ordered his commander to deal mercifully with his new subjects. After the victory in the “battle of the eyes,” so named because many Persians were wounded in the eyes by Arab arrows, the fortified city of Anbar, located near the battle site on the banks of the Euphrates, surrendered to Khalid. This completed the conquest of the entire western part of the Euphrates plain. Khalid went on pilgrimage to Mecca, and then was sent by the caliph to the army that conquered Syria.

Khalid ibn al-Walid's invasion of Iraq (634)

But when Aby Bekr recalled Khalid from the Euphrates, the military operations of the Arabs there went badly, because their other commanders were less brave and cautious than Khalid, and the energetic queen Ardemidokht, daughter of Khosrow II, began to rule the Persians. Unfortunately for the Persians, her reign was short-lived; she was killed by the general Rustum in revenge for the death of his father Hormuz. 40 days after the victory won by Arab troops in Yarmouk, the Muslims in the east, who crossed the Euphrates, were completely defeated in a battle they call the “Battle of the Bridge” (October 634). For a long time after that they could only hold out in the Babylonian desert. The Iranians did not completely defeat the Muslims only because violent upheavals were taking place in the Ctesiphon palace of their sovereigns, which interfered with the conduct of the war. The conspiracies of nobles and the intrigues of women quickly elevated one king after another to the throne and overthrew it. Finally the Persians placed the bloody diadem on the young man Yazdegerda and hoped that now the unrest would end. But Caliph Omar at this time sent reinforcements to the Arab army and appointed a talented commander, Saad Ibn Abu Waqqas, as commander-in-chief. This gave the war a new turn and, by a strange coincidence of facts, the “era of Yazdegerd”, established by Persian astronomers, began to designate the era of the fall Sassanid dynasty and the Iranian national religion of Zoroaster.

Battle of Qadisiyah (636)

Saad sent an embassy to Yazdegerd demanding that he convert to Islam or pay tribute. The young Persian king expelled the ambassadors and ordered his general Rustum to go beyond the Euphrates to drive the Muslims back to Arabia. Rustum fought with them at the Battle of Qadisiya, on a sandy plain at the edge of the desert. It lasted for four days (636), but, despite the numerical superiority of the Iranians, the Arabs won a complete victory. The state banner of the Sassanids, leopard skin, embroidered with pearls and decorated with expensive stones, became the prey of the victors. After the victory at Qadisiyah, all of Iraq submitted to the caliph.

Battle of Qadisiya. Miniature for the manuscript"Shahname" by Ferdowsi

To consolidate this conquest, the Arabs built the Basra fortress on the western bank of the Shatt al-Arab, approximately equidistant between the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris and the mouth of the river. The city's location was advantageous for trade with India; the soil of its surroundings, the “white earth,” was fertile. From a small fortress, Basra soon became a huge trading city, and the fleet built at its shipyards began to dominate the Persian Gulf.

Capture of Ctesiphon (Madain) by the Arabs (637)

Cut by rivers and canals and having many fortresses, Iraq could present great difficulties to the troops of the Arab conquerors, whose main force was the cavalry; strong walls of the Sasanian capital Madain ( Ctesiphon), who withstood the rams of the Romans, could have defended themselves against the Arabs for a long time. But the energy of the Persians was suppressed by the belief that the hour had come for the destruction of their kingdom and religion. When the Mohammedans crossed the Euphrates, they found almost all the cities left without defenders: the Persian garrisons left as they approached. Meeting almost no resistance, the Arabs crossed to the eastern bank of the Tigris and moved towards Madain. Shah Yazdegerd, taking with him the sacred fire and part of the royal treasury, fled to the mountains of Media and locked himself in Kholvan, leaving his capital to the mercy of the Arabs. Entering a huge city with magnificent palaces and gardens, abandoned by almost all the inhabitants, Saad uttered the words of the Koran: “How many gardens they left, and streams and fields, how many beautiful places they enjoyed! God gave all this to another people, and neither heaven nor earth weeps for them.” He ordered all the wealth of the city to be taken to the White Palace, in which he settled and, by law, separating a fifth share to be sent to the Caliph’s treasury in Medina, and dividing the rest of the booty among the soldiers. It was so huge that each of the 60,000 warriors received 12,000 dirhams (drachmas) of silver for their share. The jewelry that was in the halls of the White Palace amazed the Muslims: they looked at gold, silver things, decorated with expensive stones and at the products of Indian industry, not being able to understand what all this served, not being able to appreciate these things.

The most amazing work of art found by the Arabs in the palace was a carpet 300 cubits long and 50 cubits wide. The design on it depicted a garden; flowers, fruits and trees were embroidered with gold and lined with expensive stones; There was a wreath of greenery and flowers all around. Saad sent this extremely expensive carpet to the Caliph. Omar, unable to understand the beauty of this marvelous work of art and hard work, cut the carpet and distributed the pieces to the prophet’s companions. That one piece that was given to Ali cost 10,000 dirhams. In the halls of the White Palace, the ruins of which are still preserved, the Arabs found many weapons decorated with expensive stones, a royal crown with huge diamonds, a golden camel, huge masses of musk, amber, sandalwood and camphor. The Persians mixed camphor into wax for candles that lit the palace. The Arabs mistook camphor for salt, tasted it and were amazed that this salt had a bitter taste.

Founding of Kufa

With the entry of the Muslims into Mada'in (637), the decline of this magnificent Sassanid capital began. On the right bank of the Euphrates, south of the ruins of Babylon, the Arabs built the city of Kufa. The ruler of Mesopotamia began to live in this city. Omar feared that if Madain was made the center of government, the Arabs in this luxurious city would forget the simplicity of morals and adopt the effeminacy and vices of its Persian inhabitants, so he ordered the construction of a new city for the residence of the governor. The location chosen was healthy and suited to military needs. The dwellings were built of brick, reed and asphalt. The first settlers were old warriors; other Arabs who settled in Kufa learned from them to be proud, always ready to revolt. Kufa soon became dangerous to the caliph with its arrogance, so that Omar was forced to appoint Mugira, the most merciless of his commanders, as the ruler of this city, so that he would curb the rebellious.

Arab warriors of the era of great conquests

Conquest of Iran by Arabs

Having captured Madain, the Arabs went north to the Median mountains. Shah Yazdegerd fled from Kholvan further to safer areas, leaving the people to their fate. The people were more courageous than the king. While Yazdegerd hid in the inaccessible mountains of northeastern Iran, his troops fought bravely at Jalul and Nehavende south of Hamadan (Ecbatana). They were defeated, but with their courage they restored the honor of the Persian name. Having taken Kholvan and Hamadan, the Arabs followed in the footsteps of the fleeing king to the northeast, penetrated to the mountains of the southern shore of the Caspian Sea, where luxurious valleys lie between the heights at which blizzards rage, and took possession of the fertile fields of the area where Tehran and the ruins of the ancient city now stand Rhea indicate previous wealth and education.

Omar considered it premature for the Arabs to go further into the unknown mountainous regions; he believed that first it was necessary to conquer the south of Iran, where the magnificent cities of Susa and Persepolis once stood, as well as northern Mesopotamia and Armenia. By order of the caliph, Abdallah Ibn Ashar crossed back across the Tigris south of Mosul, conquered Mesopotamia and united with the victorious Syrian army at Edessa. At the same time, Saad went from Kufa and Basra to Khushtan (Susiana), captured the city of Shuster after a stubborn battle and sent the brave satrap Gormuzan (Gormozan) captured to Medina so that Omar himself would decide his fate. The Persian nobleman entered Medina dressed magnificently in purple and in a tiara richly decorated with expensive stones; he was amazed to find the ruler of the Muslims in simple woolen clothes sleeping on the threshold of the mosque. Omar ordered that the signs of his high rank be torn from Gormuzan and said that he should be executed for his stubborn resistance, which cost the lives of many Muslims. The Persian nobleman did not chicken out and reminded the caliph that he was fulfilling the duty of a loyal subject. Omar stopped threatening; Gormuzan accepted faith in Allah, who destroyed the Persian kingdom and the religion of Zoroaster, and became one of Omar’s favorites. Susiana and Farsistan, where the ruins of Persepolis stand in the Merdasht valley, were conquered by the Arabs after rather weak resistance; both of these regions and all the lands to Kerman and to the desert were given under the control of Muslim leaders. The Caliph ordered a census of the people, an assessment of property, and an establishment of the amount of tax on agricultural products and herds.

Death of the last Sasanian Shah Yazdegerd

The Muslims marched in large troops and small detachments further across Iran, and the unfortunate Yazdegerd, who fled to the eastern border, asked for help from the Turks and Chinese. The Arabs captured Isfahan, Herat, and Balkh. Everything from the beautiful Shuster Valley to Kelat, Kandahar and the ridge separating Persia from India was conquered by the warriors of Islam. Omar had already died when the fate of Iran and the last Iranian king was decided. Yazdegerd, having collected the remnants of the Persian troops and received help from Turks, came to Khorasan. After a long struggle he was killed by a traitor (about 651). Where and when it was, we do not know with certainty; The only news that reached us was that while crossing a river, a miller killed him in order to take possession of his rings and bracelets.

This is how my grandson died Khosrow the Great; his son Firuz, who continued to call himself the king of Persia, lived at the court of the Chinese emperor; with the grandson of Yazdegerd, the Sassanid clan in the male line ended. But the princesses of the Persian dynasty, taken captive, were made wives or concubines of the victors, and the offspring of the Arab caliphs and imams were ennobled by an admixture of the blood of the Persian kings.

Zoroastrianism and Islam after the Arab conquest of Iran

With the death of the Sassanids, the religion of Zoroaster was also doomed. The Persians did not convert to Islam as quickly as the Syrian Christians, because the difference between the dualism of the Persian religion and the monotheism of Islam was very great, and the Zoroastrian magicians had a strong influence on the people. There was no help in Persia for the spread of Islam that the proximity of Arabia gave it in Syria. On the contrary, the proximity of pagan India served as support for the religion of Zoroaster: moreover, the Iranian mountain tribes were very stubborn in their habits. It is therefore not surprising that the ancient Persian faith fought against Islam for a long time, and its adherents at times staged violent uprisings. But the religion of Zoroaster, initially imbued with sublime ideas and distinguished by the purity of its moral teaching, had long been distorted by foreign influences, lost its moral purity amid the luxury and debauchery of the Persians, became an empty formality, and therefore could not withstand the struggle against the new faith, which not only promised its followers heavenly bliss, but also one that gave them earthly benefits. An enslaved Persian became the brother of his conquerors by accepting their faith; That's why Iranians converted to Islam in droves. At first, they got rid of the payment of tribute and only paid, on an equal basis with the Arabs themselves, a tax intended to benefit the poor. But, accepting Islam, they brought into it their previous religious concepts, and they brought their literary memories into Arab schools. Soon after the death of Yazdegerd, the Arabs crossed the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Yaxartes (Syr Darya), revived the remains of ancient culture in Bactria, Sogdiana and spread the teachings of Muhammad in the regions along the upper Indus. The cities of Merv, Bukhara, Balkh, Samarkand, surrounded by a vast circle of walls, inside which there were gardens and fields, became strongholds of these regions from the invasions of the Turks and nomadic tribes, and became important trading centers in which the exchange of eastern goods for western ones took place.

The Iranian Zend language was forgotten, and the Pahlavi language also fell out of use. The books of Zoroaster were replaced by the Koran, the altars of fire were destroyed; only some tribes living in the desert or in the mountains retained the old religion. In the mountains of Elbrus and in other inaccessible mountainous areas, fire worshipers (Gebras), faithful to the religion of their ancestors, remained for several centuries; the Muslims at times persecuted them, at times ignored them; their number decreased; some emigrated, the rest converted to Islam. A small community of Parsis, after long disasters and wanderings, found refuge on the Gujarat Peninsula in India, and the descendants of these fire worshipers still preserve the faith and customs of their ancestors. The Persians, conquered by the Arabs, soon acquired moral influence over them, became teachers in the new Muhammadan cities, and became Arab writers; their influence became especially great when the caliphate came under the rule of Abbasid dynasty, which patronized the Persians. Bidpai's fables and The King's Book were translated from the Pahlavi language into Arabic.

The inhabitants of Bukhara and Turkestan soon converted to Islam. During the reign of Muawiya, the brave Muhallab and the brave son of Ziyad, Abad, conquered the country from Kabul to Mekran; other generals went to Multan and Punjab. Islam spread in these lands as well. It became the dominant religion in western Asia. Only Armenia remained faithful to Christianity; but the Armenians formed a special church, separated from the universal one, and paid tribute to the Muhammadans. Subsequently, the Muslims reached the Caucasus and fought there with Khazars and acquired followers of Islam in Tbilisi and Derbent.

In the VI - VIII centuries. A large state association of Arab tribes arose in the Middle East. At this time, the Arabs were free pastoralists or landowners. The tribal leaders of the Arabs, in order to seize new lands, waged numerous wars, in which military art was developed, which had its own characteristics, determined by the nature of the social development of the Arab tribes, the uniqueness of their occupations and armed organization.

Arab tribes have been known to neighboring peoples since the third millennium BC. The culture of the Arabs for a long time had local significance and did not extend beyond the Arabian Peninsula.
According to the nature of their occupations, the Arab tribes were divided into three groups: Bedouins(nomadic pastoral tribes), fellahin(sedentary agricultural tribes) and half-fellahs(semi-nomadic tribes). The Bedouins raised camels, horses and sheep. Their horse breeding later served as the basis for the creation of the Arab cavalry. The fellahs lived near oases, were engaged in agriculture and were a good contingent for recruiting infantry. The Arabs also knew trade. The development of trade contributed to the emergence of large centers and city-states, among which Mecca and Medina stood out.
Each tribe consisted of several tribes; the lowest economic unit was the tent - the family. With the separation of the tribal nobility - sheikhs and seids - wealth was gradually concentrated in their hands, they owned the largest herds, had slaves and were tribal military leaders. At the head of the tribe was the Majilis - the council of seids (heads of families or individual clan communities). Elected to fight the war kaid- military leader.
The Arabs have long been famous for their belligerence; family ties united them in battle. Every adult Arab was a warrior. Sheikhs and seids, known for their courage and enterprise, had their own small squads, which then contributed to the emergence of the power of the caliph.
Not every Arab could purchase and maintain a horse, so the army of the Arab Caliphate also included infantry. To speed up the march of infantry and cavalry, the Arabs used camels, which are very obedient and in the desert during a simoom (sandstorm), they lie on the ground and create a kind of living parapet. To fight, the warriors who fought on camels were armed with long spears.
The complete armament of the Arab horseman was very rich and varied. The warrior had to have two strong and powerful bows and a quiver of 30 arrows with straight, sharpened tips, a hard shaft and iron wings; a long bamboo spear with a tip made of the best iron; throwing disc with sharp edges; a sharp sword that thrusts and cuts; a war club or a double-edged axe; 30 stones in two saddle bags. The Arab's protective equipment consisted of armor, a helmet worn on a hat, two handrails, two leggings and two leg guards. The horse was shod with heavy horseshoes for the campaign. Arab warriors had such combat swords with which they cut enemy horses.

In war, the Arabs widely used ambushes, raids and surprise attacks, mainly at dawn, when sleep was especially sound.
The Arab state arose as a result of the unification of tribes and the conquest of large territories, in an environment of increasing property inequality. The unification of Arab tribes contributed to their strengthening, and the expansion of trade and wars on this basis enriched the tribal nobility, which in turn accelerated the process of decomposition of the tribal system. The alliances of Arab tribes were headed by caliphs. Wars of conquest contributed to the strengthening of their power and its eventual transformation into despotic power. The caliph was considered the successor of Muhammad, the founder of the militant religion - Islam, which appeared at the beginning of the 7th century.
The Arab state included nomadic tribes of Bedouins, whose nobility were engaged in cattle breeding and trade, fellahs and cities of Western Asia, which were craft and trading centers. The emerging economic community of Arab tribes became the economic base of their state. Islam became the ideological basis for uniting the Arabs in the interests of the tribal nobility, wealthy urban artisans and merchants.
“Islam, according to Delbrück, is not a religion, like Christianity, but a military-political organization of the people... In Islam, the church and the state coincide: the prophet, like his successor the caliph, i.e. the deputy, is the spiritual ruler and secular ruler, herald of divine will and military leader." Islam, like any religion, is the ideology of the ruling exploiting classes, and not a military-political organization of the people. Islam united spiritual and secular power in the state in the interests of the ruling classes. Church and state can neither oppose each other nor coincide. The church is an ideological instrument of state power in a class society. In the Arab state, this instrument and means of physical enslavement and oppression was in the same hands.

Muhammad, Burak and Gabriel visit hell, where they see a demon torturing “shameless women” who showed their hair to strangers.

The union of Arab tribes took shape in an atmosphere of fierce class struggle between the masses of the poor and the tribal nobility. Intensification of the struggle in the 7th century. led to a war between Medina and Mecca, the center of the Arab nobility. Let us consider some features of the military art of the armed organization of the Arab tribes in the initial period of their struggle to unite the population of Arabia.

Battle of Mount Okhod (Uhud) in 625
The battle at Mount Okhod (Uhud), located near Medina, was one of the stages of the struggle between the Meccans and the Medinas.

Scheme of the battle at Mount Okhod (Uhud) in 625

Medina's militia consisted of 750 infantry led by Muhammad. Mecca fielded 3 thousand fighters, including 200 horsemen. The Meccans had fourfold superiority, and a detachment of horsemen was a good means of maneuver.
The Medinians built their detachment across the gorge with their rear to Mount Okhod (Uhud), which closed this gorge. The left flank of their battle formation was provided by 50 archers. The Meccans divided their cavalry into two detachments and placed them on the flanks of the infantry battle formation.
The first stage of the battle is the attack of the Meccans by the Medinians.
The battle began with single combat, after which the Medinians attacked and pushed back the Meccans. Some of the Medinians broke through to the enemy camp and began looting. Seeing this, the Medina archers voluntarily left their position and also rushed to plunder the Meccan camp.
The second stage of the battle is the counterattack of the Meccan cavalry.
The commander of the Meccan cavalry detachment took advantage of the chaos that arose among the Medinans, who covered the flanks of the enemy’s disorganized battle formation and dealt a blow to the Medinan infantry from the rear, which decided the outcome of the battle. The Medinians were defeated.
Even in the early period of internecine struggle, the Arabs used dismembered battle formations, which allowed them to maneuver in battle. The Meccan infantry acted defensively, the cavalry was a means of maneuver and, despite its small numbers, decided the outcome of the battle. The Medinan archers in this battle had an independent task of securing the flanks, which they did not complete due to their indiscipline.
Muhammad's combat practice was, in general, far from brilliant. In the battle at Mount Okhod (Uhud), his detachment was defeated, and he himself was wounded. In 629, in the battle of Muta, the Byzantines destroyed a 3,000-strong detachment of Arabs, commanded by Zeid, one of Muhammad’s military leaders. Only in 630 the prophet and his followers took possession of Mecca.

Triumphant entry of Muhammad into Mecca.

FEATURES OF THE MILITARY ART OF THE ARAB ARMY
In the first half of the 7th century. The unification of the Arab tribes was completed and the Arab Caliphate arose - the state of the Arabs. The Arab army defeated the Byzantines and in a short time conquered Iran, which had been weakened by long wars with Byzantium. The political and military weakness of Iran was the main reason for the rapid successes of the Arab army. The Arabs had strong remnants of the tribal system, which determined some of the features of their military organization and combat effectiveness.
Sources usually greatly exaggerate the size of the Arab army. In fact, the army numbered only thousands and less often tens of thousands of warriors. Thus, in the decisive battle with the Persians in 637 at Kadesia, the Arabs had 9–10 thousand people. In the deserts of North Africa, in Western and Central Asia, only a small army could be provided with food, fodder and especially water. Reports by Arab writers about battles with the Byzantines cite figures of 20–30 thousand soldiers.

Fight between Arabs and Byzantines.

The cavalry in the Arab army was several times inferior in number to the infantry, which was usually transported either on camels or on horses. High mobility was a feature of the Arab army. Given this quality of their troops, the command widely applied the principle of surprise.
The battle formation of the Arab army was formed under Byzantine and Iranian influence. It consisted of five parts: the vanguard, the center, which the Arabs called the “heart,” the right and left wings and the rearguard. The flanks of both wings were covered by cavalry. The Arab battle formation, dissected along the front and in depth, ensured high tactical maneuverability and powered the battle from the depths. According to the Arab historian Tabori (838–923), the Arabs first used this battle formation in 634 at the Battle of Adshnaiden in Syria, where they defeated the Byzantine army.

1. Khorasan heavily armed horseman, mid-7th century.
2. Turk from Transoxiana, early 8th century.
3. Arab infantryman, late 7th century.
4. Iranian horse archer, late 7th century.

The successes of the Arab army were usually prepared by subversive work in the environment of the next target of attack. The Arab command widely used all methods of corrupting the enemy - bribery, intimidation, manifestations of “humanity,” treachery, etc. Thus, in 712, the Arabs, taking advantage of Julian’s treason, defeated the Visigoths in a three-day battle.
The Arab state reached its greatest power during the reign of the Umayyad dynasties (661–750). By this time, the Arabs, having broken the resistance of the Berber tribes, conquered North Africa, then the Visigothic kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula and invaded Gaul, but were defeated by the Franks in the battle of Poitiers. At the same time, the Arabs waged successful wars with Byzantium, the Khazars and in the northwestern part of India. Having thrown the Khazars behind the Caucasus ridge, they established themselves in Albania (Azerbaijan), Eastern Georgia and Armenia. Their strengthening of Derbent was of great strategic importance.
Moving to the East, the Arabs by the middle of the 8th century. conquered Central Asia - Khorezm, Sogdiana, Bukhara, approached the borders of Western China, defeated the Chinese army and thereby secured the territory of Central Asia. During this period, the Arab Caliphate surpassed in size the Roman Empire during its heyday. The capital of the Umayyad Caliphate was the city of Damascus.

1.2. Infantrymen of the Umayyad Guards, mid-8th century.
3. Rider of the Umayyad guard, mid-8th century.
4. Umayyad foot archer, mid-8th century.

As a result of the uprising, which was centered on Iran and Iraq, the Umayyad dynasty was overthrown. In 750, relying on Iranian feudal lords, the Abbasid dynasty came to power and remained in power until 1055. Baghdad became the capital of the caliphate. Under the Abbasids, the Arab caliphate reached a high level of development. The Arab caliphs attracted scientists from many countries. In Baghdad they studied ancient Greek philosophy, history, mathematics, geometry, geography, astronomy and medicine. The Arabs paid great attention to the use of military equipment they borrowed from the conquered countries. Arab troops were usually accompanied by a caravan of camels, which carried catapults, ballistas and battering rams. The Arabs used incendiary projectiles known as “Greek fire.” “Oil workers” - pots of burning oil - were widely used. In the IX - XI centuries. Arab steel weapons, especially those made in Damascus, were famous throughout the world.
During the reign of the Abbasids, the organization of the armed forces of the Arab Caliphate was completed. Now the Arabs had a standing army of mercenaries, which during the war was strengthened by popular militias. The core of the standing army was the Caliph's guard. For example, the best part of the army of the Grenada Caliphate under Abdurrahman III (896–961) was the guards infantry, numbering 15 thousand Slavs. The caliphate owed its victories to this guard. Each detachment of the Arab Guard had the same weapons and wore special clothing. The combat importance of the guard in external wars gradually decreased, as it was increasingly used to fight popular uprisings.

1. Horseman from Sind, 9th century.
2. Transoxian horse archer, late 9th century.
3. Abbasid standard bearer, late 9th century.
4. Azerbaijani infantryman, early 10th century.

The best and main part of the Arab army was the cavalry, which was divided into light and heavy. The heavy cavalry had long spears, swords, battle clubs, battle axes and defensive weapons - lighter than those of the knights of Western Europe. The light cavalry was armed with bows and arrows and long thin javelins. The Arabs had heavy and light infantry. The heavy infantry were armed with spears, swords and shields; she fought in deep formations. Foot archers operated mainly in loose formation, having two powerful bows and 30 arrows with sharpened tips, a solid shaft and iron feathers.
The organization of the Arab army was based on the decimal system. The largest military formation was a detachment of 10 thousand people led by the emir. This detachment consisted of 10 military units (each with a thousand soldiers), subdivided into hundreds, commanded by individual commanders. Every hundred is divided into two fifty. The smallest unit was ten.
The marching order of the Arabs consisted of a vanguard, main forces and rearguard. The vanguard of light cavalry usually advanced several kilometers forward and sent out reconnaissance detachments to study the terrain and observe the enemy. At the head of the main forces moved heavy cavalry, covered on the flanks by detachments of foot archers, who, even during a forced march, did not lag behind the horsemen. The heavy cavalry was followed by infantry. In the center of her marching column were camels loaded with food, ammunition and tents. The infantry was followed by a caravan of camels, which carried siege and assault vehicles and a field hospital. The rear of the marching column was guarded by a rearguard. The establishment of field hospitals in the Arab army dates back to the beginning of the 9th century. The field hospital had camels with stretchers in which wounded and sick soldiers were transported, camels carried tents, medicines and dressings, medical personnel rode mules and donkeys.

1. Nubian infantryman, 10th century.
2. Egyptian horseman, late 9th century.
3. Bedouin mercenary, 10th century.
4. Arab warrior, end of the 10th century.

When stopping for the night or making a long halt, the Arab army, as a rule, built a fortified camp, protecting it on all sides with a rampart and a ditch. “As soon as the camp is set up,” reports one Arab writer, “the emir first of all commands to dig a ditch on the same day without delay or delay; this ditch serves to cover the army, prevents desertion, prevents attacks and protects against other dangers that may arise due to the enemy’s cunning and all sorts of unexpected events.”
When approaching the enemy, the cavalry of the Arab vanguard, having started a battle, gradually retreated to their main forces. At this time, heavy infantry was being built. The infantrymen, kneeling on one knee, covered themselves with shields from enemy arrows and darts; they stuck their long spears into the ground and tilted them towards the approaching enemy. The archers were positioned behind the heavy infantry, over whose heads they showered the attacking enemy with arrows.

1. Samanid horseman, 10th century.
2. Buyid horseman, 10th century.
3. Dailemite infantryman, early 11th century.
4. Ghaznavid guardsman, mid-11th century.

The Arab battle formation was divided along the front and in depth. Each of the lines, lined up in five ranks, had an allegorical name: the first line (“Morning of the Barking Dogs”) consisted of a loose formation of horsemen; the second ("Day of Relief") and third ("Evening of Shock") lines, which were the main forces, consisted of cavalry columns or phalanxes of infantry, lined up in a checkerboard pattern; the fourth line - the general reserve - included selected squads who guarded the main banner. The general reserve entered into battle only as a last resort. In the rear of the Arabs there was a convoy with families and herds. From the rear and flanks, their battle formation was vulnerable, but its high maneuverability ensured an appropriate regrouping of forces. Sometimes women from the convoy took part in the battle.
The battle was started by the first line, which tried to frustrate and break the enemy’s forces. She was then supported by a second line. The main forces of the Arabs preferred to conduct a defensive battle, providing support for the actions of light cavalry and infantry.
Arab troops in battle were distinguished by their persistence and tenacity. They usually sought to cover the flanks of the enemy's battle formation.
When the enemy was broken, they launched a general offensive and then pursued him until he was completely destroyed. The pursuit was led by cavalry.
Islam played a great role in strengthening the military discipline of the Arabs. The authority of Allah was the moral basis of discipline. Islam promised all the benefits in the other world for a brave death in battle, but here on earth it forbade the warrior from drinking wine and demanded complete obedience to the caliphs. The highest ideal of the Koran (holy book) proclaimed a “holy war” with the “infidels,” that is, with everyone who did not recognize Islam. On this basis, militant religious fanaticism was encouraged in every possible way, which also had an economic basis - the right to a share of war booty.

1. Andalusian infantryman, 10th century.
2. Andalusian horseman, XI century.
3. Berber-Andalusian light horseman, 10th century.
4. Andalusian foot archer, 11th century.

The Arabs paid great attention to cultivating the fighting qualities of a warrior. Hunting was one of the means of developing these qualities. About his father, an Arab writer of the 12th century. Osama Ibn Munkyz wrote: “ Hunting was his pastime. He had no other business than to fight, to fight the Franks (Crusaders) and to rewrite the book of Allah, the Great and Glorious.” For a noble Arab, only war and hunting were considered worthy deeds. “My father organized the hunt in such a way that it was as if he was organizing a battle or an important matter.” The Arabs had very strong remnants of savagery. So, for example, when the brave vizier Rudvan was killed in 1148, then, according to Osama Ibn Munkyz, “the inhabitants of Mystras divided his meat among themselves in order to eat and become brave”; In ancient Arabia, it was considered especially valuable to eat the liver or heart of a killed brave warrior. Not only men, but also women fought in the ranks of the Arab army.

1. Fatimid warrior from the caliph’s guard, early 11th century.
2. Rider of the Saharan tribal cavalry, mid-11th century.
3. Fatimid horseman, 11th century.
4. Fatimid city militia, late 11th century.

The numerous wars of conquest that the Arabs waged determined the nature of their strategy. The speed of strategic maneuvers was ensured by the high mobility of the troops. Tactics were dominated by defensive actions in order to weaken the enemy. The defeat of the enemy always ended with energetic counterattacks and pursuit. The division of the battle formation and high discipline made it possible to manage the battle well.
The Arab infantry supported the cavalry and was the mainstay of the battle formation. The interaction of infantry and cavalry ensured success in battle. “God loves those who fight in his name in such a battle formation, as if he were one tightly fused building.” This is the basic tactical requirement laid down in the Koran.
In 1110, the ruler of Antioch, Tancred, led a knightly army against the Arabs. The Arab cavalry entered into battle with the advanced detachments of the knights. “From Shaizar,” writes Osama-Ibn-Munkie, “a lot of infantry came out that day. The Franks rushed at them, but could not dislodge them. Then Tancred became angry and said: “You are my knights and each of you receives a salary equal to the content of a hundred Muslims. These are “sergeants” (he meant infantrymen) and you cannot dislodge them from this place.” “We are only afraid for the horses,” they answered him, “if not for this, we would trample them and pierce them with spears.” “The horses are mine,” said Tancred, “whoever’s horse is killed, I will replace it with a new one.” Then the Franks attacked our infantrymen several times and seventy horses were killed, but they could not move ours from their place.” But the Arabs did not always show such resilience. Thus, in the battle of Ascalon, the dust raised in the rear of the knightly army by cattle captured from the Arabs caused panic in the ranks of the Arab army.
During the campaign, the Arabs observed strict order. Osama Ibn Munkyz wrote: “Before next Monday I have recruited 860 riders. I took them with me and went to the land of the Franks (Crusaders). We made halts at the signal of the trumpet, and at the same signal we set off again.”
Western European knights could not pursue with the goal of completing the victory by completely destroying the enemy. The Arab light cavalry acted differently. Speaking about the battle at Askalon, Osama Ibn Munkyz writes: “If we had defeated them (the crusaders) in the same number as they defeated us, we would have destroyed them.”

1. Hamdanid horseman, end of the 10th century.
2. An Armenian Muslim living in the border area. X century
3. Border warrior from Malatya, end of the 10th century.
4. Seljuk horse archer, late 11th century.

The fighting formations of the Arabs changed during the wars and were the result of accumulated combat experience in the fight against various opponents.
The generalized experience of combat formations is presented in an Arabic manuscript of the 13th century. unknown author, which talks about seven figures, according to the shape of which the troops lined up.
The first two figures are a crescent; one is a crescent with pointed ends of the figure, the second “is distinguished by the fact that each arc of both rows of the two sides and the back side has two separate ends, and both ends of the large arc protrude above the smaller one by a fourth of the distance between the ends of the small arc.” The number of ranks in the center should be small, and the pointed flanks serve as detachments allocated for ambush. These flanking detachments must advance faster than the center until the enemy's encirclement ring is closed. This order of battle, according to an unknown author, “contains the principles of military cunning and the art of encircling the enemies of God and defeating them.”
The third figure is a square, in which the width must be proportionate to the depth (if the width is two miles, then the depth is one); the width must be twice as large as the depth. And in this case, the author recommends setting up ambushes on the flanks, which should consist of several detachments with the task of ensuring battle order.
The fourth figure is an inverted crescent. In this battle formation, it is more convenient to push ambushes forward from the flanks. “The purpose of this order is to prevent the enemy from noticing how often ambushes are moving forward.”
Fifth figure - diamond formation. “This order, with a small depth, has a significant width. It is distinguished by great ease, is least susceptible to various changes when the ranks are disrupted, is very often used in our time, does not require particularly great skill and experience in formation, which is carried out with an instant order throughout the entire army. This order has a great advantage because its width, shape of formation and large numbers instill fear in the enemy and, moreover, it requires fewer ambushes than others. This procedure is used when the enemy has such a numerical superiority that morale among the Muslims decreases. Then they try to encourage themselves and line up in this wide formation in order to instill fear in the enemy.”
The sixth figure is a half-diamond. The width of this battle formation is less than the depth (the width is one mile, the depth is six miles).
The seventh figure is a circle shape. It is used “when the number of the enemy greatly exceeds the strength of the Muslims and the battlefield is large.” This battle formation “makes it possible to create a perimeter defense, mutually support each other and win a victory.” The author of the Arabic manuscript considers this battle formation to be the weakest.
A characteristic feature of most of the considered forms of battle formations was the desire to encircle the enemy and fight in the encirclement, but not to escape from it. Geometricism is their second, but already external, feature. Finally, we should note the idea of ​​activity that underlies all these battle formations, which distinguishes them favorably from the battle formations recommended by ancient authors.
The military art of the Arabs had a noticeable influence on the countries of Western Europe. Clashes with the disciplined and mobile Arab cavalry, whose tactics were based on maneuver, taught the sedentary, heavily armored, undisciplined European knights a lot. One of the consequences of the wars with the Arabs during the Crusades was the creation by the crusaders of a military organization - spiritual orders of knighthood.
At the same time, it should be noted that Arab military art borrowed a lot from the Byzantines, Slavs, Persians, Indians, peoples of Central Asia and the Chinese.