i can't really find much of anything about their armies on the internet, does anyone here know anything about what arms, aromours and tactics were preferred in andalusian spain? contemporary art would be especially appreciated.

much love

martin

Images may be scarce because taboo against images and Reconquista and expulsion of the Jews from Spain, but see the works of David Nicolle and research in Spanish such as soler-del-campo-armamento-medieval

Finally a rich opportunity for discussion, though under-appreciated. For sources: besides Osprey, Ian Heath's Armies series are way better (though they are often viewed as sources for lazy enthusiasts).

During the 13th century, the Andalusian States (or one of them, specifically) started to adopt heavier armor than previously worn, using heavy cavalry with full or "3/4" mail armor, etc. This can be confirmed by the Christian Artistic evidence, notably the Cantigas de Santa Maria, made in Castile. Heath notes we can see fully mailed horsemen with great helms or skull caps+mail hood in the Muslim armies, either pointing out they are Christian Mercenaries or actual Muslim horsemen armed like knights.

Another Christian artistic evidence from the Balearic Islands, I don't recall if 13th or 14th century, shows a Muslim horseman with wrist-length hauberk, partially covered by a cloth on the torso.

Both Heath and a Historian named by the pseudonymous of "Ghost Hero" mentions that later Andalusian sources say heavy armor was used before (ie. in the 13th century) but dropped in the 14th century: changing longer hauberks for shorter ones, open helmets, etc. This would be the tendency that would last up to 1492.

It could be said the Church blockade on the exports of armor to the enemy was part of the reason, but it doesn't seen the Andalusian Muslims were really making huge efforts to avoid that.

Lastly, it should be noted that an altarpiece of the Battle of El Puig, made c. 1400, shows a single armoured figure at the bottom of the painting: wearing a blue dyed corazzina and what appears to be either an underneath coat-of-plates/brigandine cuirass or simply small coat-of-plates/brigandine shoulders. The sleeves, at least in my opinion, may perhaps show a gilded mail sleeve, as in the neck-standard.
https://img.mesvilaweb.cat/wp-content/uploads/sites/1648/2018/06/Centenar_ploma01.jpg
(PM me for a better picture, all the ones I found now are awfull

That's totally my speculation: but King Henry the Weak of Castile, Isabela's predecessor, had a so-called Moorish Guard with Granadine bodyguards (which Isabela used as political argument against him). Perhaps the figure is a guardsmen of Castile (Portugal never raised something like that, though). Heavily armoured Christian men-at-arms were also used by Muslim rulers, as it happened in North Africa (Heath mentions that, another reason why you should go for him)

Quote:

" Enrique went far beyond that, not only dressing in Muslim fashions but eating and drinking according to their custom and receiving visitors while seated on the ground. The king also surrounded himself with a large personal guard, consisting of several hundred guardas moriscos , whose members were richly rewarded with lands and money. To a Bohemian visitor in 1466, such affectations confirmed that Enrique was "an enemy of Christians" who "has driven out many Christians and settled the heathen in their place. [...] Even if he was innocent of apostasy, the perception that his "unchristian ways" posed a danger was widely held by contemporaries.91 As Fuchs and others have rightly argued, Enrique's attitudes and policies toward Muslims replicated those of his predecessors (and successors). Even the guarda morisca, which, despite claims to the contrary, consisted almost entirely of converts to Christianity, was an inheritance from his father. [...] In one case, for instance, a commission appointed to eliminate abuses in the royal administration ordered Enrique to immediately disband the guarda morisca , expel its members from Castile, and make no attempt to re-instate it. He was also to make immediate and effective war against Granada.93"

Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43576783

sorry for the late reply, i was unable to login for a while

thank you both for the a input, in addition a spanish friend of mine found this essay on the subject which was a very worthwhile read: https://arrecaballo.es/edad-media/la-reconquista/los-ejercitos-musulmanes/#

Quote:

During the 13th century, the Andalusian States (or one of them, specifically) started to adopt heavier armor than previously worn, using heavy cavalry with full or "3/4" mail armor, etc. This can be confirmed by the Christian Artistic evidence, notably the Cantigas de Santa Maria, made in Castile

it seems odd to me that their nazirs and other heavy troops would not have worn a lot of armour before that, is there art depicting andalusian troops from before the 13th century or is that the earliest date we have visual confirmation?

regarding their swords, they seem to have had swords with round crossguards. such crossguards appear in byzantine and armenian art from around the same time and i would love to see pictures of surviving examples of such swords assuming there are any, or alternatively andalusian art depicting them.

-martin