etymologies and etiologies 19
gave cavalry soldiers the striking appearance of having their legs trussed
beneath them, like chickens heading to the oven, making them readily
identifiable and easily distinguishable from heavy cavalry in the famous
sixteenth- century murals depicting the Battle of Higueruela ( 1431 ) in the
Sala de Batallas of the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (fig. 1 ).
This new Spanish knight carried a short throwing lance, called a jineta,
as well as small leather shield, called an adarga (derived from the Arabic
daraqa, meaning “shield”).^18 His military advantage lay in the ability to
attack and flee, a tactic known as tornafuye, which allowed him to harass
and scatter heavy cavalry without engaging them directly.^19 As sixteenth-
and seventeenth- century riding manuals like Tapia y Salcedo’s Exercicios
de la gineta demonstrate, the steady diffusion of this style — appropriately
called a la jineta— led to the decline of heavy cavalry, which had domi-
nated Iberia.^20 Indeed, so thorough and successful was this revolution that
eventually in Spain jinete and genet simply came to mean horseman.^21
As is well attested to in Arabic sources, this lightly armed style of riding
as well as the tactic of attacking and fleeing (known as al- karr wa’l- farr)
began among the Arabs and Berbers of North Africa, in particular mem-
bers of the Zanāta tribes.^22 According to the eleventh- century historian
figure 1. Granello- Tavaron- Castello y Cambiasso, Battle of Higueruela ( 1431 ). Skirmish of
the Jinetes. Monasterio- Pintura, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid. Photograph: Album /
Art Resource, New York.