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Illustrations from a furusiyya manuscript, c. 1500
A Mamluk Training with a Lance
David Collection Museum, Denmark
Miniature from a furusiyya manuscript. “A Mamluk Training with a Lance”
Egypt or Syria; c. 1500
Leaf: 24 × 16.7 cm
The Mamluks were a dynasty of professional slave soldiers for whom the art of war was of the greatest importance. They cultivated a special type of writing, the furusiyya, which primarily dealt with the horse and its use in war, but also infantry drills with the sword, the lance, the bow, and Greek fire. Such writing was often based on earlier Abbasid treatises.
The Mamluk shown here training with his lance is wearing a characteristic violet fur hat (zamt), but otherwise the depiction has limited aesthetic ambitions. It is an illustration for a didactic work, nothing more.
Source: The David Collection Museum, Denmark, Inv. no. 19/2001
