This illustrated study investigates the Indo-Islamic fighting men of
South Asia from the 7th century AD to the Mughal conquest of the 16th
century.
From 1206, much of what is now India as well as parts of Pakistan,
Bangladesh and Nepal were ruled by a succession of Islamic dynasties
that had their origins in the Ghurid forces that conquered parts of
northern India in the 12th century. Although it was never complete, the
Islamic domination of this huge region also had a profound impact upon
Islamic civilization as a whole, not least in military terms, being felt
as far west as Africa. Within South Asia, the war-torn medieval
centuries laid the foundations for the subsequent even more brilliant
Mughal Empire.
Featuring eight plates of superb artwork alongside carefully chosen
photographs and illustrations, this study complements the same author's
Medieval Indian Armies (1): Hindu, Buddhist and Jain. It describes and
illustrates the Indo-Islamic forces operating in South Asia, from the
Umayyad Caliphate's frontier in north-western India and Afghanistan in
the late 7th century through to the Delhi Sultanate, the Sultanate of
Bengal and the Bahmani Sultanate in the 15th and 16th centuries.
David Nicolle explains how, with respect to arms, armour, fortification
and transport both on land and at sea, the widely successful Muslim
armies learned a great deal from their more numerous Hindu, Jain and
Buddhist opponents. This was especially evident in developments such as
the use of war-elephants and the adoption of lighter, often
textile-based forms of protection such as 'soft armour' made of cotton.
On the other side, there would be widespread adoption of more potent
weapons such as the composite bow, and considerably more sophisticated
systems of cavalry warfare, among the non-Islamic forces of the Indian
sub-continent. Fully illustrated, this absorbing account casts light on
many centuries of warfare in South Asia.
