The Moors: The Islamic West 7th–15th Centuries AD

Osprey Men at Arms #348

by David Nicolle, Angus McBride (Illustrator)

The high point of medieval Islamic expansion was the 700-year presence of the 'Moors' in Spain and Portugal. The Arab and Berber conquest was followed by the establishment of a richly distinct culture in Andalusia, where for a while Muslim and Christian co-operated as often as they fought. The rise and fall of successive Islamic dynasties brought new invaders, fragmentation and disunity; and the growing Christian kingdoms to the north eventually doomed the amirate of Granada, the last Moorish bastion, which fell to the Castilians in 1492. The colourful armies of Western Islam are described and illustrated here in fascinating detail.

Genres: History, Military History, Medieval, Nonfiction, Islam, Spain

48 pages, Paperback

First published January 25, 2001

About the author

David C. Nicolle is a British historian specialising in the military history of the Middle Ages, with a particular interest in the Middle East.

Reviews

[José Luís Fernandes · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is very, very bad: full of inaccuracies on Andalusian armies and with lots of general mistakes. David Nicolle knows a rat's ass on western Islam and this is its public proof.

[Jur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explains the development of organisation, equipment, architecture and naval warfare of the Islamic conquerors and inhabitants of teh Iberian Peninsula. It details the change from a Ummayad caliphate based on Spain to Almoravid and later Almohad empires that were both rooted in North Africa. These were seen, by the Muslims as well as the Christians, as foreign invaders. Their fundamentalist teachings meant that they remained separated from the Spanish elites.

Interesting is that these invasion always followed on fragmentation of the previous Muslim empire. Encroachment by Christian kingdoms then forced the Spanish Muslims to call for help from the south. They would have rather remained masters of their own fate.

Like its Osprey companions El Cid and the Reconquista and Granada this is a well researched book, which draw its strength from David Nicolle´s good knowledge of Arabic sources and the beautiful paintings of Angus McBride. But there´s also a broad variety of photographs and maps that add to the text without overlap between the books.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does a bit of a poor job at giving a systematic introduction to medieval armies in the Western Islamic world. Rather, it somewhat sporadically touches upon many aspects of it. If you go into this book thinking you will learn ABOUT something, rather than OF something, you will be disappointed. Though considering the price these go for, and the amount of pages they contain, this is neither outrageous or unexpected. The real attraction of this book are it’s original illustrations made by the talented Angus McBride, in contrast to the book’s unclear black & white pictures. Personally I was also very happy being introduced to so many native Arabic (etc.) terms for military concepts, which impelled me to independently do further research on them.

In summary: this book is very short, cheap and has lovely illustrations. It's a good touchstone for further research but no more than that.

[Paul A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, as is expected from this series. However, this entry seems to be much less descriptive and much more general in its coverage. I felt as though there was very little content on the actual conflicts that the Moors fought in. Historical coverage is broad, with a few comments on prevailing tactics of the period, but it feels as though the author could have expounded more. Artwork was incredible, as always.

[Sarah Schanze · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork again, but this focused so much on the military-aspect that I'm not sure I really got that much out of it. Still a nice resource though, and I can probably pick some things out of it to use.