The Ethiopians yvere another independent African nation who came into conflict with the Turks, or at least Arab forces with Turkish support. At first they were unable to make headway against Turkish firearms, but in 1541 got arms and aid from the Portuguese, and had considerable success under the Emperor Galawedos (Claudius).
The Portuguese expeditionary force consisted of 400 men, all arquebusiers, a drum and fife band, and 130 slaves, who also fought. They bore the Royal banner of crimson and white damask, with a cross, and other flags of blue and white, with red crosses, and brought with them 1,000 stand of matchlocks and some cannon.
Galawedos’ army consisted of 500 horse and 8,000 foot clad in the local dress of loose tunics and breeches, and, in the case of the foot, armed with bows, straight swords and hide shields; the horse rode with a loop for the big toe instead of a stirrup, would probably have been armed with light lance or javelin, and may have included a small proportion of mailed cavalry, as did those of the Wadj area, a tributary state, which, as well as 10,000 infantry with javelins, had 5,000 horse, mainly bareback light cavalry, but with 500 in mail and with horses caparisoned in antelope-hide. All these were lancers.
Generally the Ethiopians’ discipline cannot have been high, though they were capable of fierce charges, but the Galla tribesmen were described as coming on, not without order, like barbarians, ’but in formed squadrons’.
Elephant armour — later than the period covered in this book, but probably similar to some earlier ones (Department of the Environment).
Although somewhat beyond the general geographic limits I have taken, the armies of the Moghul Emperors of India I think qualify for inclusion, belonging as they do to the Islamic world, and in many respects following the pattern of those of Persia or Turkey, though with many distinctive features of their own.
The beginning of the Moghul Empire was in the 1520s, when one of the Mongol conqueror Tamerlaine’s descendants, Babur (ruler of a part of the latter’s old empire), invaded India, and after winning victories over Afghans, Rajputs and others, set up the Empire at Delhi. The large paid army we are here concerned with, however, was more the creation of a successor, Akbar, in the second half of the 16th Century.
Babur's army was very largely of cavalry, of the Persian-Mongol type; this remained true of later Moghul armies, and Persians were often to be found serving in them, usually as officers (they claimed to be much better horsemen than Indians — but then, they claimed to be much better riders than anybody).
However, there was soon also an infantry component, partially equipped with firearms, which at the battle of Panipat (1525) occupied a sort of wagon-laager in the usual Eastern style; 700 ox-carts, some possibly equipped with guns, were connected with bull-hide ropes and oortable breastworks. Two years later, at Khanua, wagons and guns seem to have actually advanced against the enemy, under the direction of Babur’s Turkish gunner, Mustafa Rumi (Rumi=Turk).
In Akbar’s day, the paid infantry and cavalry may have been roughly equal in number, at 12,000 each, but by the middle of the 17th Century the cavalry, very much the chief striking arm, outnumbered the 15,000 paid infantry and artillery by two or three to one.
World History
