Gordon Frye wrote: |
In light of Hisham's posted painting of Mohacs, and Felix's comments on Frankish Heavy Cavalry's devestating charge, I would like to point out the rather interesting inclusion of some Turkish Heavy Cavalry in the lower right-hand corner (well, just above the lower right-hand corner, really) of the painting. Chaps wearing helmets and what looks to be maille (which most of the other Turkish Horse isn't shown with), carrying lances and mounted on barded horses. Hard to know if the bardings are quilted cloth, or coverings for heavier armour, but it's there never the less, and looks substantial.
My own knowledge of Mohacs is quite scanty, being limited to the single chapter the Oman devotes to the battle, but it is interesting to note that the Turks had their own "Cataphracts" as it were to counter the Hungarian's Western-style Heavy Horse. Whether they were used or not, I don't recall. Hisham, do you have more details on Mohacs? Cheers, Gordon |
:blush:
I'm embarrassed to admit, that despite including that painting, I actually know very little about the battle of Mohacs. Apart from the fact the Turks won.
The Ottomans, Mamluks, Mughuls and Safavids all had heavy cavalry, but their armour was nowhere near as heavy as European plate armour. It consisted of mail or mail-and-plate armour. In terms of the protection it offered it is probably equivalent to late 12th century European armour. You will notice all the Ottoman cavalry still have bowcases and quivers, so despite the armour, they were still horse archers. Mamluk tactics were to soften up the enemy with arrows, followed by a cavalry charge against an already weakened enemy. I think Ottoman sipahi cavalry tactics were probably similar.
You will notice that the Hungarian knights are already on the run, but they had probably already been softened up by artillary, musket fire and Turkish horse-archers.
On the subject of Ottoman bards, this picture was very kindly given to me by B.I. on vikingsword.com's ethnographic weapons forum. It is a 16th century Ottoman armour and bard from the Armeria Reale di Torino. Thanks Brian, I hope you don't mind me using your picture.