Road to Manzikert by Brian Todd Carey & Joshua B Allfree & John Cairns

Author:Brian Todd Carey & Joshua B Allfree & John Cairns
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781848849167
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2013-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

Changes in Islamic Warfare in the Late Umayyad and Early Abbasid Caliphates

In 750 the Umayyad Caliphate was overthrown in a bloody civil war by Abu al-Abbas (r.750–754), a direct descendent of Muhammad’s youngest uncle and founder of the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258). Abu al-Abbas used his Arab power base in Islamic Khurasan and local non-Arab Muslim supporters (Mawali) to build an army and challenge the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II (r.744–750). Muslim discontent with Umayyad rule had been growing for decades due to political and moral corruption in Damascus and poor treatment of Muwali by selfish governors in the provinces. Moreover, the Umayyads, who claimed no direct descent from Muhammad, were disliked by the powerful and influential Shia sect, who saw Abu al-Abbas and his Sunni Abbasid dynasty as a more legitimate alternative. In January 750 the Abbasid army, joined by their Shia allies, defeated Marwan and his larger Umayyad host at the battle of Zab River in northern Iraq, ushering in five hundred years of Abbasid rule.

Abbasid interest in Asia over the Mediterranean world became immediately evident when the great Muslim victory over Tang China at the battle of Talas River in 751 opened Central Asia and its lucrative Silk Roads to Islam. In 762, a new Muslim capital was established in Baghdad on the Tigris River, a move that continued the shift in Islam’s political interests eastward while relieving some of the military pressure on Byzantium and Catholic Western Europe. The Abbasid court in Baghdad was filled with Mawali from all over the caliphate, with Persians taking a central role in governing. The office of vizier was created, shifting the day-to-day executive power from the caliph to his chief Persian advisor. Slowly the caliph was transformed into a figurehead more interested in his harem and court life than providing the political, religious and military leadership once associated with Muhammad’s successors. Eventually, weak Abbasid rulers would invite succession and numerous smaller Muslim dynasties would spin off from Baghdad and create rival and sometimes even more powerful Islamic states.

Under the Umayyad Caliphate Islamic armies began to mirror their enemies in tactics, equipment and organization. The last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, is credited with standardizing his army, sub-dividing his forces into smaller units (kardus), each including heavy infantry, light infantry archers and heavy cavalry lancers. Muslim infantry fought in the Byzantine fashion, placing the better-armoured foot soldiers in the front. But unlike Byzantine horsemen, Islamic cavalry would dismount and fight as infantry, using their lances as pikes. Muslim heavy cavalry mounts were protected with felt barding, while their riders wore coifs and hauberks and were armed with maces, straight-hilted swords and the large khanjar or daggers. In order to better stabilize these heavier warriors on their mounts, the leather loop stirrup was replaced by metal ones.29

These martial trends continued into the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258), though persisting contacts with Central Asians began to impact the Islamic way of mounted war. Abbasid generals increasingly utilized Khurasani (eastern Persian) and Turkish horse archers, armoured in lamellar cuirasses and round leather shields, and armed with lance and short composite bow.

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