Studies on Mounted Warfare in Asia I: Continuity and Change in Middle Eastern Warfare, c . ce 550–1350 – What Happened to the Horse Archer?

2014/11/01 by Eduard Alofs · 2 citations
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Eurasian Exchange Networks #Ancient Near East History #Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies

paper · doi:10.1177/0968344513517664

openalex publication_date 2014/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

In this article the author rejects the common model for the description of pre-modern warfare as a constant process of technological advances, and argues that both the sources and the pictorial and archaeological record seem to show that, during the period and in the region under consideration, warfare remained essentially unchanged. He postulates the existence of two military traditions, the ‘Turanian’ tradition of the pastoral nomads of Inner Asia and the ‘Iranian’ tradition of sedentary populations under the nomad influence.

Cited by

• Rashidun army [wikipedia]
• Rashidun cavalry [wikipedia]

Related

• Studies on Mounted Warfare in Asia II: The Iranian Tradition – The Armoured Horse Archer in the Middle East, c . ce 550–1350
• Storm from the Steppes: Warfare and Succession Institutions in Pre-Modern Eurasia, 1000–1799 CE
• The Army and Militarism in the Samanid Era
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• The Making of Turan: The Fall and Transformation of the Iranian East in Late Antiquity