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Originally posted by Djehuti:
^ LOL The Asperger's Syndrome is not nice though since Brandon (Truthcentric) has that, but obviously has mental faculties that function quite well.

I am still disturbed by some Afronuts like Clyde who still think Berber is "Vandal" in origin. He discounts the existence of the Afro-asiatic language phylum completely yet he extends the Mande languages to include Dravidian! LOL

By the way, excellent work Dana citing all these valuable sources including first hand accounts of what the Moors looked like. It's still amazing how Euronuts try to white-wash them.

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Originally posted by zarahan- aka Enrique Cardova:
^^Co-sign. Excellent work Dana.

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In Egyptian mythology, Anti (Antaeus in Greek, but probably not connected to the Antaeus in Greek mythology) was a god whose worship centred at Antaeopolis, in the northern part of Upper Egypt.

His worship is quite ancient, dating from at least the 2nd dynasty, at which point he already had priests dedicated to his cult. Originally, Anti appears to have been the patron of the ancient area around Badari, which was the centre of the cult of Horus. Due to lack of surviving information, it is not very well known what the original function of Anti was, or whether he was more than just a title of Horus referring to some specific function.

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Greeks of the sixth century BC, who had established colonies along the coast, located Antaeus in the interior desert of Libya.[2]

He would challenge all passers-by to wrestling matches, kill them, and collect their skulls, so that he might one day build out of them a temple to his father Poseidon. He was indefatigably strong as long as he remained in contact with the ground (his mother earth), but once lifted into the air he became as weak as other men.

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Originally posted by Doug M:
Actually, Anti and Anteus are all the African progenitors and prototypes for Hercules.

Anti: (Egyptian diety)

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In Egyptian mythology, Anti (Antaeus in Greek, but probably not connected to the Antaeus in Greek mythology) was a god whose worship centred at Antaeopolis, in the northern part of Upper Egypt.

His worship is quite ancient, dating from at least the 2nd dynasty, at which point he already had priests dedicated to his cult. Originally, Anti appears to have been the patron of the ancient area around Badari, which was the centre of the cult of Horus. Due to lack of surviving information, it is not very well known what the original function of Anti was, or whether he was more than just a title of Horus referring to some specific function.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_%28mythology%29

Horus in Ancient Egyptian mythology is simply a reference to the concept of "the hero". He is the one who overcomes all odds and defeats the enemies or foe. He is the "strong one" given the force of the gods to defeat all enemies. And in this sense Anti represents the ancient African of North Africa, clad in a loincloth who was able to conquer the wilds and environs including the beasts and fauna. This is the archetype from which Hercules derives. The Greek version of Anti is Antaeus and in that tradition you see that Anteus is a "strong person" who challenges all comers to bouts of wrestling, which is an ancient African tradition of manhood, bonding, feats of strength and sport. Again all of which shows the African roots of the Hercules myth which goes back to the African great hunter of the Savanna and eventually becomes associated with Horus "the hero" of Egypt.


But of course, since Hercules is a Greek hero he has to defeat Anteus. But also note the Egyptian iconography as Anteus draws his strenth from the ground below, strongly reminiscent of the Egyptian cosmology in reference to Nut (the sky) and Min (the earth), where the earth is always symbolized as a male figure.
Antaeus (Greek):

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Greeks of the sixth century BC, who had established colonies along the coast, located Antaeus in the interior desert of Libya.[2]

He would challenge all passers-by to wrestling matches, kill them, and collect their skulls, so that he might one day build out of them a temple to his father Poseidon. He was indefatigably strong as long as he remained in contact with the ground (his mother earth), but once lifted into the air he became as weak as other men.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antaeus

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Originally posted by Djehuti:
^ But you do realize 'Libya' was the generic name for Africa that Greeks used. Though I don't know how much the Greeks associated or identified those folks to the east of the Nile with those folks to the west of it.

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There are plenty of paintings in Spain and other documents in Spanish and Portuguese along with ancient Islamic writings from the time period that show the complexion and population make up of the "Moors".

Note this painting from Spain:


http://missfolly.tumblr.com/post/11774893247/battle-of-puig-detail-king-of-aragons-conquest

Painted in 1410-1420.

And the interesting part of this story is the numerous folks who converted from Christianity to Islam and vice versa. This includes the famous example of El Cid, but other kings including the Muslim King of Valencia under the Almohads. And it is this conversion that led to many Muslim knights coming into Christian service and bringing with them the traditions of Magic and "the Magi" into Spain through the secret orders and rituals of the Africans, Sufis and other Eastern groups.

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James I met with the dethroned Emir Abu Zayd in Teruel to establish a new pact between them. Instead of his signature, the document was stamped with Abu Zayd's crest, an eagle and the Castilian motto: Sciello de Ceit Buceit nieto de [Emir al] Momenin. The date was set at 28 May 1236 and it stipulated that a fourth of the territory of Valencia would go to Abu Zayd upon the conquest and that Abu Zayd and his descendants would declare themselves the vassals of James I and of any children he had with Violant of Hungary. It was at this time that Abu Zayd had converted to Christianity and adopted the name Vicens Bellvis.

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Dear Pir Zia,

I have been thinking lately about planetary culture and an earlier age of esoteric syncretism in the Convivencia in medieval Spain. I would say that the Sufis—and not the Italians!—actually brought us the Renaissance. Their Middle Eastern music and Persian poetry influenced the returning Crusaders like Guillaume of Poitiers and the later troubadours such as Arnaut Daniel in Provence, and from there the influence spread to Italy to Cavalcanti and Dante. Ibn Arabi's cosmology influenced Dante, as did the Hadith of Mohammed's journey to heaven and hell, but to protect himself from the Church, Dante stuck Mohammed in hell to appear completely Christian and unheretical. The poets, musicians, and artists of the early thirteenth-century Renaissance before the Black Death knew that Andalusia, Majorca, and Sicily were the gateways of Islam into the soul of Europe. Just look at this picture from King Renes Book of Love (1456) of the chivalric knight from Sicily and you see the Sufi emblem of the winged-heart atop his helmet and on the coverings for his horse.

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http://www.sevenpillarshouse.org/article/on_prophecy_and_time/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambdachialpha/73267919/in/set-851191

Although this idea of the winged heart is actually based on a more recent Sufi who traveled in the west:

http://forum.yogananda.net/index.php?/topic/22321-hazrat-inayat-khan/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inayat_Khan

The older form of the winged heart goes back to Egypt in the shape of the winged "heart" scarab.

You can also see the influence in the form of the Mystery Plays which derive straight from the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, which is a holdover from the Roman traditions of Isis.

For example:

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The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which St. Augustine referred to as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus), is the only Latin novel to survive in its entirety.

The protagonist of the novel is called Lucius. At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus, the hometown of Apuleius himself. The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity (curiositas) and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass. This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with in-set tales. He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Ass

This play came from Roman Egypt from the time period when the Rome occupied Egypt. The Romans carried on the traditions of ancient Egypt in the worship of Isis and much of the bible and Christianity derives from the work of the Gnostic Egyptian priests. This was uncovered in the Nag Hammadi texts.

Ceremonial Procession at temple of Ramses III in Medinet Habu:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/413499392/in/set-72157600016233275/http://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/413499392/in/set-72157600016233275/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/413498979/in/set-72157600016233275/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/annspain/489103181/

This is also the basis also of the holy brotherhoods in Europe as well, which are in turn based on the older gnostic traditions in Greece and Rome, along with the Judeo Islamic mysticism of the Moors in Spain.

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Liturgical drama or religious drama, in its various Christian contexts, originates from the mass itself, and usually presents a relatively complex ritual that includes theatrical elements. Until the Late Middle Ages it is the best recorded tradition of religious drama, and is assumed to have been the root from which other forms such as the civic mystery plays, as well as poorly recorded travelling companies, grew. The number of surviving scripts is small, and many performances are only known about from entries in payment records and the like.

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Paschal Beverly Randolph (October 8, 1825 – July 29, 1875) was an American medical doctor, occultist, Spiritualist, trance medium, and writer. Randolph is notable as perhaps the first person to introduce the principles of sex magic to North America, and, according to A.E. Waite, establishing the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States.

Sources disagree as to Randolph's birthplace (Ohio, New York or Virginia). He was a free man of mixed-race ancestry, descendant of William Randolph. His father was a nephew of John Randolph of Roanoke and his mother was Flora Beverly, whom he later described as a woman of mixed English, French, German, Native American and Malagasy ancestry. This background led to his being a spokesman for the abolition of slavery. His mother died when he was young, leaving him homeless and penniless; he ran away to sea in order to support himself. A peripatetic man, he lived in many places, including New York state, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Toledo, Ohio. He married twice; his first wife was African-American; his second wife was Irish-American.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschal_Beverly_Randolph


One of the things I found in doing the research for that post is some interesting links between the Star and Crescent as an ancient symbol from many parts of the Near East and Africa with Christianity.

First the star and crescent is often seen in European heraldry reflecting in many cases (in my opinion anyway) Muslim knights and arms converted to the Christian cause.

For example, note the following Knights from Aragon (in the Chronicle of James 1 of Aragon):

http://libro.uca.edu/chronicleofjames/chronicle.htm
Pay attention to one of the knights having a star and crescent on his helmet. It is from the time of the Reconquista that many Muslims often switched sides and this is in reality the main reason the Muslims lost: they could not stick together and the chaos this created forced many to seek shelter with the Christians, bringing with them many traditions of the East and Africa.

Here is another recent book originally written in Spanish on the subject:

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The English translation of professor Echevarría’s Caballeros en la frontera is a welcome treatment of a topic that has received ample attention within Spain as evidenced by the essay collection La Banda Morisca durante los siglos XIII, XIV y XV [The Moorish Guard during the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries] edited by Manuel García Fernández (Seville, 1996) and Echevarría’s article “La guardia morisca: un cuerpo desconocido del ejército medieval español [The Moorish Guard: an unknown corps within the Spanish medieval armies], Revista de Historia Militar 90 (2000): 55-78, but has been almost ignored outside of it.

The Moorish Guard in the fifteenth century was royal cavalry and infantry corps in Castile composed almost exclusively of recent converts to Christianity from Islam. Because of their desirable skills in frontier warfare, high social position within their Muslim societies of origin, and willingness to serve on the Christian side, these individuals came to compose an elite standing military force that served to protect the Spanish monarch as well as conduct important missions along the Castilian-Granadan frontier. This study touches upon many different areas including Military History, relations between Castile and Granada, and religious attitudes within Castile toward Muslims and Moriscos.

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http://www.deremilitari.org/REVIEWS/Echevarria_Knights_Frontier.htm

Late period Painting of Moorish Armies from Granada, note that many wear short tunics and stockings similar to the soldier in the winged heart piece I posted earlier. This is the Jineta type of cavalry that was very influential throughout Europe, especially later Spanish light cavalry. Note also many of these soldiers have the star and crescent on their banners or shields.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Higueruela.jpg

And this kind of horse cavalry can still be seen in Tunisia and Algeria which influenced later French and American cavalry forces.

Note the following emblem used by Union forces in the VIIth corps during the civil war:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_Corps_Badges

As for troops during the Islamic invasion of Spain, I would argue they had adopted much of the dress and tactics of the Roman Byzantines and especially the Persian Sassanians: colorful brocaded coats and kaftans often over chain mail or scale with some brigandinge, cloaks in various colors and some type of shield. This was pretty much standard attire in the eastern armies of the time (byzantine rome;persia,etc).

Graham Turner is an artist who has done some good artistic representations of these Armies.

http://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/poitiers_732.html

Unfortunately due to European historical distortions, the fact that much of later Medieval culture originated in the East is downplayed or outright ignored as part of the rise of the modern European world empire, which is why most times you could only find out about this in occult or hidden histories.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambdachialpha/135953203/in/set-851191/lightbox/

The French in particular also got even more influence from places like Armenia which also was part of the ancient Persian, Byzantine central Asian cultural sphere and incorporated such traditions into their early christian doctrine.

Also note that in this period I believe the North Africans would also have retained some of the traditions of the Numidians and other North African groups, along with some even older traditions inherited from the Egyptians.

But a lot of this is lost in modern histories. For example note the following recently produced video which makes the Moors look like Mongols and is in my opinion totally inaccurate. The idea of Islamic holy war based on booty and plunder, led by "holy warriors" became the basis of many later traditions seen in European knightly Christian orders (as a unifying political, military and economic order).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvSbBEoBePg

But you can see more of the historical developments in horse warfare and material culture of central in the unesco publications on the History of Central Asia:
http://www.unesco.org/culture/asia/html_eng/ouvrages.htm

Volume 3 is the most relevant with some very good images of frescoes in central Asia showing the elaborate dress and customs of these early horse warriors. Note the Khwarizmi heavy cavalry, which was a shadow of its former self after being sacked by the Mongols, was able to destroy Jerusalem and the Western Forces there by itself, before moving on to support the Islamic armies in Egypt who dealt a final defeat to the crusaders in the battle of Harbiyya (la Forbie).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_La_Forbie

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Originally posted by mena7:
There is a coin of king Juba II of Mauritania with the picture of Juba II in the front and the symbol of crescent and moon in the reverse side long before Islam was invented.

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______________________________________________ ^^^ six rayed star

The early Muslim community did not have a symbol. During the time of Muhammad, Islamic armies and caravans flew simple solid-colored flags (generally black, green, or white) for identification purposes. In later generations, the Muslim leaders continued to use a simple black, white, or green flag with no markings, writing, or symbolism on it.

During the 19th century, it represented the Ottoman Empire, figuring on the Ottoman flag from 1793.

Turkish Flag in use since 1844



Nation of Islam Flag



The star and crescent appear in combination in finds from in and around ancient Palestine. It has been associated with the Moabites (14th or early 13th – 6th century BC), as the symbol or symbols appear on what are thought to be Moabite name seals.Crescents appearing together with a star or stars are a common feature of Sumerian iconography, the crescent usually being associated with the moon god Sin (Nanna to the Sumerians) and the star (often identified as Venus) with Ishtar (Inanna to the Sumerians). However, in this context, there is a third element often seen, that being the sun disk of Shamash.

By the late Hellenistic or early Roman period, the star and crescent motif had been associated to some degree with Byzantium. If any goddess had a connection with the walls in Constantinople, it was Hecate. Hecate had a cult in Byzantium from the time of its founding. Like Byzas in one legend, she had her origins in Thrace. For example, some Byzantine coins of the 1st century BC and later show the head of Artemis with bow and quiver, and feature a crescent with what appears to be a six-rayed star on the reverse.

Later, under the Romans, cities in the empire often continued to issue their own coinage. "Of the many themes that were used on local coinage, celestial and astral symbols often appeared, mostly stars or crescent moons."[The wide variety of these issues, and the varying explanations for the significance of the star and crescent on Roman coinage precludes their discussion here. It is, however, apparent that by the time of the Romans, coins featuring a star or crescent in some combination were not at all rare.


insignia of the Knights of the Golden Circle OR crescent insignia for Louisiana troops "five-pointed star= Florida parishes, and the crescent moon for New Orleans".The crescent moon was a very popular symbol of secession in the south used on flags, etc..

Posts: 42930 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by mena7:
There is a coin of king Juba II of Mauritania with the picture of Juba II in the front and the symbol of crescent and moon in the reverse side long before Islam was invented.

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Yes, I believe that Islam took the star and crescent from older cultures. In Egypt similar symbols can be seen in various deities but especially with Djehuti, which is a personification of writing, time, wisdom, arts, science and law:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/lenkapeac/2531231963/sizes/o/in/photostream/


But most of all I see Islam as a combination of Amun (the hidden unknowable force of god/creation), Ptah (the word, law) and Djehuti (wisdom, math, science and recording) from a philosophical and theological perspective.

But you also had similar iconography in ancient Persia as well.


And from the broken image link I meant to post this earlier:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/lambdachialpha/135953203/in/set-851191/lightbox/

(Note the stylish servants is Moorish as well, see Jinetes above, along with some of the traditions of the Sufis in Morocco.

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THERE is no study so saddening, and none so sublime as that of the early religions of mankind. To trace back the worship of God to its simple origin, and to mark the gradual process of those degrading superstitions, and unhallowed rites which darkened, and finally extinguished His presence in the ancient world.

At first men enjoyed the blessings of nature as children do, without inquiring into causes. It was sufficient for them that the earth gave them herbs, that the trees bore them fruit, that the stream quenched their thirst. They were happy, and every moment though unconsciously they offered a prayer of gratitude to Him whom as yet they did not know.

And then a system of theology arose amongst them vague and indefinite, as the waters of the boundless sea. They taught each other that the sun, and the earth, the moon, and the stars were moved and illumined by a Great Soul which was the source of all life, which caused the birds to sing, the brooks to murmur, and the sea to heave. It was a sacred Fire which shone in the firmament, and in mighty flames. It was a strange Being which animated the, souls of men, and which when the bodies died, returned to itself again.

They silently adored this Great Soul in the beginning, and spoke of Him with reverence, and sometimes raised their eyes timidly to His glittering dwelling-place on high.

And soon they learned to pray. When those whom they loved lay dying, they uttered wild lamentations, and flung their arms despairingly towards the mysterious Soul; for in times of trouble the human mind so imbecile, so helpless, clings to something that is stronger than itself.

As yet they worshipped only the sun, the moon, and the stars-and not as Gods but as visions of that Divine Essence, which alone ruled and pervaded the earth, the sky, and the sea.

They adored Him kneeling, with their hands clasped, and their eyes raised. They offered Him no sacrifices, they built Him no temples; they were content to offer Him their hearts which were full of awe, in His own temple which was full of grandeur. And it is said that there are yet some barbarous islands where men have no churches nor ceremonies, and where they worship God, reflected in the work of His thousand hands.

But they were not long content with this simple service. Prayer which had first been an inspiration fell into a system, and men already grown wicked prayed the Deity to give them abundance of wild beast's skins, and to destroy their enemies.

They ascended eminences, as if hoping that thus being nearer God, He would prefer their prayers to those of their rivals. Such is the origin of that superstitious reverence for high places which was universal throughout the whole of the heathen world.

Then Orpheus was born. And he invented instruments which to his touch and to his lips, gave forth notes of surpassing sweetness, and with these melodies he enticed the wondering savages into the recesses of the forest, and there taught them precepts of obedience to the great Soul, and of loving-kindness towards each other in harmonious words.

So they devoted groves and forests to the worship of the Deity.

There were men who had watched Orpheus, and who had seen and envied his power over the herd who surrounded him. They resolved to imitate him, and having studied these barbarians, they banded together, and called themselves their priests. Religion -is divine, but its ministers are men. And alas! sometimes they are demons with the faces and wings of angels.

The simplicity of men, and the cunning of their priests has destroyed or corrupted all the religions of the world.

These priests taught the people to sacrifice the choicest herbs and flowers. They taught them formulas of prayer, and bade them make so many obeisances to the sun, and to worship those flowers which opened their leaves when he rose, and which closed them as he set.

They composed a language of symbols which was perhaps necessary, since letters had not been invented, but which perplexed the people and perverted them from the worship of the one God.

Thus the sun and moon were worshipped as emblems of God, and fire as an emblem of the sun, water as an emblem of the moon.

The serpent was to be worshipped also as an emblem of wisdom and eternal youth, since it renews its skin every year, and thus periodically casts off all symptoms of old age.

And the bull, most vigorous of animals, and whose horns resemble those of the crescent moon.

The priests observed the avidity with which the barbarians adored these symbols, and increased them. To worship the visible is a disease of the soul inherent to all mankind, and the disease which these men could have healed they pandered to.

It is true that the first generation of men might have looked upon these merely as the empty symbols of a Divine Being, but it is also certain that in time the vulgar forgot the God in the emblem, and worshipped that which their fathers had only honored. Egypt was the fountain-head of these idolatries, and it was in Egypt that the priests first applied real attributes to the sun, and to the moon whom they called his wife.

It may perhaps interest you to listen to the first fable of the world.

From the midst of chaos was born Osiris, and at his birth a voice was heard proclaiming-"The ruler of all the earth is born."

From the same dark and troubled-womb were born Isis the Queen of Light, and Typhon the Spirit of Darkness.

This Osiris traveled over the whole world, and civilized its inhabitants, and taught them the art of agriculture. But on his return to Egypt the jealous Typhon laid a stratagem for him, and in the midst of a banquet had him shut up in a chest which exactly fitted his body. He was nailed down in his prison, which cast into the Nile floated down to the sea by the Taitic mouth, which even in the time of Plutarch was never mentioned by an Egyptian but with marks of detestation.

When Isis learnt these sad new she cut off a lock of her hair, and put on her mourning robes, and wandered through the whole country in search of the chest which contained the dead body of her husband.

At length she learnt that the chest had been carried by the waves to the shore of Byblos, and had there lodged in the branches of a tamarisk bush, which quickly shot up and became a large and beautiful tree, growing round the chest so that it could not be seen.

The king of the country amazed at the vast size the tree had so speedily acquired, ordered it to be cut down to be hewn into a pillar to support the roof of his palace-the chest being still concealed in the trunk.

The voice which had spoken from Heaven at the birth of Osiris made known these things to poor Isis, who went to the shore of Byblos and sat down silently by a fountain to weep. The damsels of the queen met her and accosted her, and the queen appointed her to be nurse to her child. And Isis fed the infant with her finger instead of with her breast, and put him every night into fire to render him immortal, while transforming herself into a swallow she hovered round the pillar which was her husband's tomb, and bemoaned her unhappy fate.

It happened that the queen thus discovered her, and shrieked when she saw her child surrounded by flames. By that cry she broke the charm and deprived him of immortality.

By that cry Isis was summoned back to her goddess-form, and stood before the awe-struck queen shining with light and diffusing sweet fragrances around.

She cut open the pillar, and took the coffin with her, and opened it in a desert. There she embraced the cold corpse of Osiris, and wept bitterly.

She returned to Egypt and hid the coffin in a remote place: but Typhon, hunting by moonlight, chanced to find it, and divided the corpse into fourteen pieces. Again Isis set out on her weary search throughout the whole land, sailing over the fenny parts in a boat made of papyrus. She recovered all the fragments except one which had been thrown into the sea. Each of these she buried in the place where she found it, which explains why in Egypt there are so many tombs of Osiris.

And instead of the limb which was lost, she gave the phallus to the Egyptians-the disgusting worship of which was thence carried into Italy, into Greece, and into all the countries of the East.

When Isis died, she was buried in a grove near Memphis. Over her grave was raised a statue covered from head to foot with a black veil. And underneath was engraved these divine words:

I am all that has been, that is, that shall be, and none among mortals has yet dared to raise my veil.

Beneath this veil are concealed all the mysteries and learning of the past. A young scholar, his fingers covered with the dust of venerable folios, his eyes weary and reddened by nightly toil will now attempt to lift a corner of this mysterious and sacred covering.

These two Deities, Isis and Osiris were the parents of all the Gods and Godesses of the Heathens, or were indeed those Gods themselves worshipped under different names. The fable itself was received into the mythologies of the Hindoos and the Romans. Sira is said to have mutilated Brahma as Typhon did Osiris, and Venus to have lamented her slain Adonis, as Isis wept for her husband-god.

As yet the sun and moon alone were worshipped under these two names. And as we have seen, besides these twin beneficial spirits, men who had begun to recognize sin in their hearts had created an Evil One who struggled with the power of light, and fought with them for the souls of men.

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Hitherto I have traced the war-equipment of
the Spanish Christians only. In the early period
of Mohammedan rule, the conquerors used a
simple dress for war, consisting of the capacete
or almofar for the head, secured by a chain
beneath the chin and covered by a piece of
cloth called schasck, hanging to just below the
shoulders ; a wide sleeveless tunic ; a shirt of
mail ; tight breeches, and leather shoes. Their
weapons were the lance and sword. The foot-
soldiery wore the djobba, a tight-sleeved tunic of
white wool, bound to the body by a scarf, and
leather shoes, and carried as their arms a capacete
of beaten iron, without a crest or cheek-pieces ;
a large round shield with its projecting umbo ;
and either a lance, or a double-edged and double-
handed sword. Such are the details represented
in the Codex of the Apocalypse, preserved in
the cathedral of Gerona. As time progressed,
the weapons and defensive armour of these
Spanish Moors grew more luxurious and ornate,
being often decorated with enamels, precious
stones, or inlaid metals such as silver, gold, and
bronze. Prominent centres of this industry were
Murcia, Zaragoza, and Toledo, which are even
said to have surpassed Damascus. Andalusia,
too, was celebrated for her gold-inlaid cuirasses
and coats of mail; while, according to El Idrisi,
the town of Jativa enjoyed a widespread fame for
every kind of decorative armour/

The military outfit of the Spanish Moors was,
therefore, much the same as that of Christian
Spain. Toledo under Muslim rule continued
to be famous for her swords. Moorish Seville,
Ronda, and Valencia were also favourably known
for weapons, household knives, and scissors.

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http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/leonard-williams/the-arts-and-crafts-of-older-spain-volume-1-lli/page-12-the-arts-and-crafts-of-older-spain-volume-1-lli.shtml

Now the funny part is that this description of the Islamic invaders matches much of the art for Christian Knights in art from the following century. Most of the Islamic invaders were following traditions of Central Asia, Persia and the Byzantine Levant. But many European scholars down play this fact.

For example note how this image below from the Hortus Deliciarum:


http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hortus_Deliciarum_36-3m.jpg


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Hortus_Deliciarum_36-5m.jpg
Note the eastern style battle flags.

Also note the following from a later era:

quote:

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A Czech traveler, the Baron of Rosmithal, visited Castile towards the middle of the fifteenth century, and recorded in his diary certain curious notes on the life he observed. Morisco customs had infiltrated private life;or rather, these customs had been Spanish for centuries, but in the fifteenth century people wrote about the matter, because that was the time when writers were beginning to be interested in what was going on around them, to be conscious of themselves as human beings in a vital situation, in a given time and space. Let us then have a look at the Baron's diary: "There now resides in Burgos a powerful count, who took my lord and his company to his palace," as one of the Baron's secretaries writes; "there also came beautiful damsels and ladies richly adorned in the Morisco fashion, who in their whole appearance and in their eating and drinking followed that fashion. Some of them danced very lovely dances in the Morisco style, and all were dark, with black eyes. They ate and drank very little, they greeted my lord gaily, and they were very friendly with the Germans.

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