By Hugh Kennedy
The Armies of the Caliphs is the 1st significant research of the connection among military and society within the early Islamic interval, and divulges the pivotal function of the army in politics. via a thorough examination of recruitment, fee, weaponry and fortifications within the armies, The Armies of the Caliphs deals the main finished view so far of the way the early Muslim Empire grew to regulate such a lot of humans. utilizing Arabic chronicles, surviving files, and archaeological proof, this e-book analyzes the army and the face of conflict, and gives a well timed reassessment of the early Islamic nation.
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18 Donner, ‘Centralized Authority’, 347. Donner, ‘The Growth of Military Institutions in the Early Caliphate and their Relation to Civilian Authority’, Al-Qantara, xiv (1991), 311–26. 20 For military equipment, see pp. 173–8. E. Yapp (eds), War, Technology, and Society in the Middle East (Oxford, 1975), 32–43 which, despite the author’s somewhat cavalier attitude to the sources, makes some interesting observations. 22 For further discussion, see Morony, Iraq after the Muslim Conquest (Princeton, 1984), 197–8; the traditions about these troops have been collected and discussed in I.
61 The khandaq described here was obviously a well-defended quadrilateral enclosure. 62 Some khandaqs were clearly quite substantial structures. 64 ‘Abd al-Hamīd al-Kātib, writing at the end of the Umayyad period, gives instructions for the construction of a khandaq. After the baggage has been set down and the army has been assigned its places to stay, before any tents are set up. Each officer (qā’id) should be assigned a section of ground which he is to dig a trench (khandaq). It should be defended by hasak (either thorns or artificial caltrops).
The problem is rather that the figures often contradict each other and many seem to be formulaic round numbers rather than real assessments. Nor is there a clear relationship between the overall figures for men and their families enrolled in the dīwāns, and the numbers who could actually be recruited for military action. As a rule of thumb, I would like to suggest that the figures given in the sources may well be out by a factor of two, but unlikely to be out by a factor of 10: that is, a figure of 40000 may represent 20000 or 60000 but is unlikely to represent 4000 or 400000.