The Moorish inhabitants of Spain were in decline, and were finally defeated close to the start of our period, so we are concerned here primarily with the Moors of North-West Africa. During the 16th and 17th Centuries, these hardy warriors fought the Portuguese, Imperial, and Spanish forces, the Turks, the
Muslim Songhoi Empire of Northern Nigeria, as well as indulging in civil wars and large-scale sea-piracy.
On land, their chief arm seems to have been light cavalry. Some of these were clad in Turkish style, and armed with 12 foot light lance, composite bow, or even arquebus, but others sound very like their forebears of Roman times, wearing only a white turban, a fold of which went under the chin, and a sort of white loincloth, riding their ponies without either saddle or bridle, and being armed with ’three darts or long javelins, which they carry in their right hand’ and ‘a large crooked dagger called a sequin upon their left arm’. Heart-shaped shields were particularly characteristic of the Moors, at least in Spain, and were adopted from them by the Spanish genitors.
However, they also had some artillery, and considerable infantry, whose weapons included bows, crossbows, and firearms. They seem to have been formidable fighters, especially under Ahmed el-Mansur, ‘The Victorious’, who was declared Sultan after destroying the army of King Sebastian of Portugal at Kasr-al-Kabir (1578), and went on to capture Timbuktu and overthrow the Songhoi Empire with an army including 1,500 lancer cavalry and 2,500 infantry arquebusiers. The army included negroes and Turkish deserters, but many of the infantry were Andalusian mercenaries — I would assume Moriscoes who left Spain after the suppression of their revolt (which was assisted by Moors from Africa) in 1568.