The Mercenary Mediterranean_ Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon - Hussein Fancy

36 chapter one

the Maghrib: “As for the Berber, who come from the Marīnid, Zayyānid,

Tijānī, ‘Ajīsa, and North African Arab tribes, they fall under the jurisdic-

tion of their own captains and leaders who, in turn, answer to the leader

of them all, who is drawn from the eldest of the Marīnid tribe.”^119 These

Marīnid leaders, he continued, dressed like their Andalusī counterparts,

but the majority of the “Berber” troops did not.^120 Nevertheless, Ibn al-

Khaṭīb was frustratingly terse in describing how the majority did dress,

saying only that these “Berber” soldiers used a throwing weapon called

a madas (pl. amdās), a two- headed lance made of two sticks joined by a

grip in the middle, which is likely the precursor of the jineta lance used

by early modern Spanish jinetes.^121 By the fourteenth century, he added,

these soldiers had also mastered the use of the Frankish arblete or cross-

bow (qusiyy al- firanja) to complement the throwing lance.^122

When describing the Andalusī troops, however, Ibn al- Khaṭīb was

clearer. They were commanded by relatives of or men close to the Naṣrid

sultan. In the past, he continued, these Andalusī soldiers were outfitted

in the same manner as their Christian counterparts.^123 They wore long

coats of mail, carried heavy shields and long lances, and traveled with a

squire, which is to say that they rode in the fashion of other European

heavy cavalry. By his time — that is, the late fourteenth century — however,

this style had changed. The cavalry now wore shorter coats and gilded hel-

mets; they used “Arab saddles,” North African leather shields, and light

lances.^124 Importantly, therefore, Ibn al- Khaṭīb’s description reveals that

Iberian Muslim cavalry underwent a military transformation parallel to

that of their Christian counterparts, but well before them. In other words,

Muslim cavalry in al- Andalus had not always been light cavalry. At some

point before 1363 (when the Lamḥa was completed), they adopted and

adapted the Zanāta style; they started to ride in a la jineta. The illumina-

tions from the late thirteenth- century Cantigas de Santa Maria by Alfonso

X of Castile indicate the coexistence of both styles of dressing — with and

without armor — and riding — a la brida and a la jineta— in the Granadan

army, suggesting that the transformation was not complete at this moment

(fig. 2 ).^125 And thus, the question is: were these light soldiers depicted in

the Cantigas Iberian or North African troops? A description by the histo-

rian Ibn Sa‘īd al- Andalusī (d. 1286 ) strongly suggests the latter. In his time,

he explains, the Andalusī cavalry was still comprised singularly of heavily

armed knights.^126 If one accepts Ibn Sa‘īd’s portrait, then the only light cav-

alry in the Iberian Peninsula in 1284 were the North African arrivistes —

mainly but not exclusively Zanāta Berbers — under the command of the