Create an Amazon Business Account
Create an Amazon Business Account
Illustration from
Scylitzes Chronicle
f73v upper. Battle at Lalakaon and death of Amer
180 Detail of eleventh/twelfth-century Byzantine 'Skylitzes' manuscript showing Byzantine and Saracen troops. (Biblioteca nacionale, Madrid. Skylitzes Manuscript - Cod 5-3. NZ)
Source: p165, David Nicolle, "An introduction to arms and warfare in classical Islam", in: Islamic Arms and Armour, ed. Robert Elgood, London 1979
Referenced on p11 Byzantine Armies 886-1118 by Ian Heath
Another engagement between kontarion-armed cavalry, this time from the heavily illustrated manuscript of Scylitzes, now in Madrid.
The illuminations probably post-date this era but appear to have been largely based on 11th-century originals.
Points to note here are the quivers of the two bodies in the foreground, and the bandon-type standards with their long, streamer-like tails. Armour is mainly scale (or mail?).
(Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid)
Back to the smaller image of Battle at Lalakaon and death of Amer. f73v upper. Skylitzes Chronicle (Codex Gręcus Matritensis), Byzantine.