Register a SNAP EBT card with Amazon


Try Amazon Fresh








The Freer Canteen

Top of the Freer CanteenBase of the Freer Canteen

Side of the Freer Canteen


Details of the horsemen on the Freer Canteen
Dimensions:
diameter: 369mm
length of spout: 90mm
depth 215mm
The truncated pit or cone in the center of the back is 102mm in diameter at the mouth and 187mm deep.



Referenced as figure 287 in The military technology of classical Islam by D Nicolle
287. Inlaid metal flask, early 13th century AD, Jazīrah, Freer Gallery of Art no. 41.10, Washington (Elg).
Vol 1, p90-91 By the 12th century the Muslim qunṭārīyah was clearly regarded as a relatively short and heavy cavalry weapon made of beech, fir or other woods, though not of bamboo. It was used by both Saracens and Franks in the Middle East.29 Its blade, ʿarāḍ was broad and acorn-shaped30 and may have been designed for both thrusting and lateral cutting strokes. Such blades were occasionally very large indeed. Here it might be worth noting that four lance blades, recovered from the 11th century Islamic shipwreck in the Aegean, were also quite large, being some thirty centimetres in length, excluding their sockets.31 These and smaller versions appear in many pictorial sources (Figs. 3, 15, 26, 130, 156, 185, 243, 267, 268, 287, 290, 292, 300, 303, 323, 336, 385, 392, 394, 429, 447, 497, 498, 504, 507, 510, 514, 418, 521, 531, 540, 542, 543, 544, 545H, 547 and 609).

29. Al Tarṣūṣī, op. cit., p. 113; Usāmah ibn Munqidh op. cit., pp. 38-39 and 74-75; ʿImād al Dīn, op. cit., pp, 16 and 191.
30. Al Tarṣūṣī, loc. cit.
31. Bass, "A Medieval Islamic Merchant Venture," p. 92.

Vol 2, p454 Elsewhere such horse-archers appear to use crossbows, as in early 14th century Granada, or lances. Those equipped with the latter weapon often ride heavily caparisoned or barded horses (Fig. 287).

Referenced on p16, MAA - 171 - Saladin and the Saracens by David Nicolle
Early 13th-century inlaid bronze bottle from the Jazirah area. It shows mounted warriors using lances and crossbows, with some horses protected by armour. (Freer Gall., Washington)



See also Ayyubid Horse Archer on a Pilgrim Bottle (zamzamiyyah) Fragment, 12th-13th Century
10th to 19th century Egypt and its territories
Other 13th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers