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Arms and Armour in the Carved Column Capitals in the Cloister of Monreale Cathedral near Palermo in Sicily, 1174 to 1182 AD

Sicilian Swordsmen

The full image of Sicilian Swordsmen. Carved Column Capitals in the Cloister of Monreale, Sicily.

Photo by Douglas Paterson

Referenced on p.24, The Moors - The Islamic West - 7th-15th Centuries AD by David Nicolle:
Many different sculptors worked on the remarkable carved capitals in the Cloisters of Monreale Cathedral in Sicily. The best are believed to have been Muslim Sicilians trained in a style of Islamic secular sculpture seen in Egypt, North Africa and Andalus. The military equipment on this group of capitals is different from that on the others and probably reflects the arms and armour of Islamic North Africa.