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NORTH AFRICAN BERBER INFANTRYMAN, 12th-13th CENTURIES
An extract from Armies of Feudal Europe 1066-1300by Ian Heath
76. NORTH AFRICAN BERBER INFANTRYMAN, 12th-13th CENTURIES
North African Berber infantry were numerous because of the mountainous nature of their homeland. They apparently fought in large, mixed units of between 800-1,500 men, armed approximately half-and-half with bows and spears, with spearmen to the fore as described at a somewhat earlier date by Abu Bekr al-Turtushi (see page 55). It has been suggested* that the type of shield being held by the spearman depicted here, measuring some 5 feet deep and 2 feet wide, is an 'absar, a hardened leather shield described by contemporaries (who provide no clue as to its shape) as capable of turning 'the purest steel'. Shields of this shape do not occur in any Andalusian pictures, so it was fairly certainly a type only in use amongst the Berbers of North Africa; whether it is the type of shield called an 'absar, however, remains open to debate, nor least because literary references to the 'absar do occur in Moslem Spain. Though most Berber infantry were spearmen or archers some were armed instead with javelins and fought in a light infantry capacity, and it seems likely that these carried smaller shields, probably of the turs variety. Berber camelry likewise carried smaller shields; their arms comprised a long lance, javelins (in a case at the saddle) and a 2-handed sword in a simple leather scabbard also fitted to the saddle (see illustrations in Robert Storm's article).
* By Robert Storm in Slingshot 81, January 1979