The mare buried herself in the owner's chest and softly caressed him.
“There are two of us mighty, - Kamal said, - but she is faithful to one …
So let the horse thief carry away the gift, my reins are with turquoise, And my stirrup is in silver, and my saddle, and my patterned saddle cloth."
(Rudyard Kipling "Ballad of East and West")
Here we digress a little from the actual topic of "knights of nomadic empires" and see what type of culture they belonged to and what it meant for them. At their place of residence, these are, of course, “steppe dwellers” who, like the “forest dwellers”, dealt only with the land. Land - native pastures, mountains, forests - for such people, that's all. Therefore, this type of culture is called "continental". It is opposed by the type of culture that has received the name "Atlantic". "Atlantists" live along the shores of the seas. This is the culture of sailors. And both of these cultures are opposite to each other. The first is characterized by a pronounced xenophobia, because any outsider is a potential enemy or agent of the enemy. Hence steadfastness with "one's own difficulties", intolerance to the manifestations of a foreign culture, but generosity to time-tested friends. "Atlantists" are characterized by tolerance, without which the sea peoples simply could not land on foreign shores and trade with the locals. But also cunning and deceit - to rob the weak, to the strong … to sell the loot from their own weak neighbors. Phoenicians, Greeks, Vikings are typical representatives of the “Atlantic culture”. The nomads of the steppes and our ancestors - the Slavs - are representatives of the continental culture. At the same time, the vector of development of an ethnos could change over time, like its culture, although something from the past always remains. Continental Russians became courageous navigators and quickly. The Seljuk and Ottoman nomads became sedentary Turkish farmers. It is interesting that the Japanese, although they live on an island in the middle of the ocean, being the descendants of nomads from Altai, gravitate more towards the continental culture. They love horse riding and archery. But they also have female amu divers. But our Pomors - the sailors of Northern Russia, who for centuries sailed for a "tooth" to Grumant and gold to Mangazeya - "Atlantists", that's why various Old Believers and schismatics fled to them to escape. Their tolerance was known. So many of the specific features of the culture of nomadic peoples will become clearer to us if we look at them precisely from the point of view of their belonging to the continental type of culture.
Mongolian horsemen attack each other. "Jami at-tavarih" ("Collection of chronicles") by Rashid ad-din Fazlullah Hamadani. First quarter of the 14th century. State Library, Berlin.
By the way, this also applies to many of their purely knightly traditions. For example, did nomadic peoples not glorify such a dignity of a real warrior as generosity - a truly knightly quality? Weren't the storytellers praised the exploits of the eastern heroes - in fact, the same Rolands and Lancelot from the western kingdoms? Didn't the kagans, khans, emirs of the East surround themselves with their adherents - the same squad for which war, robberies and tribute were the main sources of existence? We could see the same courtyards at the barbarian king in the West, and at some nomadic kagan in the East, although the differences in the culture of everyday life, of course, could not but strike the eye.
Battle between Mongols and Chinese (1211)."Jami at-tavarih" ("Collection of chronicles") by Rashid ad-din Fazlullah Hamadani. First quarter of the 14th century. National Library of France.
In 630, the Chinese ambassador Xuan Zang, visiting the headquarters of the Turkic kagan, where he was at a reception with ambassadors from Byzantium, Mesopatamia, Central Asia and Russia, left us an interesting description. In fact, this is a textbook image of the court of the ruler of any nomadic tribe, especially if he was rich and noble enough.
A city besieged by the Mongols. Thumbnail on the page "Jami at-tavarih" ("Collection of chronicles") of Rashid ad-din Fazlullah Hamadani 1306. University of Edinburgh Library.
“… The Türkic kagan does not sit in cramped and dusty cities. Its camp, enclosed by a powerful rampart, is located in a rugged valley protected by a ring of mountains covered with eternal glaciers. A caravan equipped with enterprising merchants can go here along a mountain path in single file, but the enemy cannot get to the camp of the Turkic kagan. In the narrow mountain gorges, the enemy army will be destroyed by the forces of even a small squad.
Genghis Khan. Painting by an unknown Chinese artist of the Qin dynasty. (Brooklyn Museum)
The headquarters of the kagan is crowded. In the center, among the many felt wagons, stands a silk tent, woven with flowers. He "shines and dazzles the eyes." There are mats at the entrance. The kagan himself sits on a throne gilded and decorated with precious stones. Servants hold umbrellas above him, covering him from the sultry sun. Kagan is a warrior, he has just returned from a hunt. Hunting for the kagan is both entertainment and military training. He is now wearing a loose silk robe. The caftan, armor and weapons were removed, the hood and helmet were dropped. The head is open, only the forehead is tied with a silk ribbon with the ends falling down behind. Only trusted people in silk clothes stand on both sides of his throne, and behind him are a squad of bodyguards. The kagan receives guests - merchants, ambassadors, pilgrims. They went through the cleansing fire of the bonfires in order to cleanse themselves before meeting with the kagan. Kagan invites guests to share a meal with him. The meal begins with wine, then finely chopped boiled lamb and beef are served. The ruler dresses the honored guests with pieces of a fat tail or a ram's head; guests of a lower rank receive a brisket or shoulder blade. The meal is washed down with wine from a bowl, which passes from hand to hand of the closest and most respected guests. A Chinese and a Uighur, a Sogdian and a Byzantine drink with the kagan, if the kagan liked their gifts and offers. The meal is accompanied by music. Around "from south to north and from west to east, her noisy chords are heard," says Xuan Zang, and further continues that "despite her noise, she enchanted their ears, amused their spirit and heart." A meal with guests is a diplomatic ritual. The kagan shows attention and care to the guests. A follower of Buddha will find meager food prepared for him - rice cakes, milk cream, sugar, honeycomb and grapes. He can refuse wine and receive pure water from a mountain river in a bowl.
The ruler is riding an elephant. "Jami at-tavarih" ("Collection of chronicles") by Rashid ad-din Fazlullah Hamadani. First quarter of the 14th century. State Library, Berlin.
Herds of horses, sheep, camels graze around the headquarters of the kagan. Everywhere are scattered wagons where the warriors of the kagan live. There are so many of them, says Xuan Zang, that "the eye cannot completely cover them." And all this mass of nomads, obedient for the time being to their leader, at his word, saddles their horses, so that from the high foothills of the Tien Shan, like an avalanche, rush down into wide valleys and steppes.
Turkish helmet of the early 17th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
It remains to compare the weapons of the nomads and the Europeans. Like the knights of the West, the nomads of the East during this period also had mostly straight swords, often wearing protective clothing made of leather or metal plaques and plates sewn onto the skin. As for the helmets, the nomads had them in a conical shape with a nosepiece. It is enough to refer to the well-known images on the "carpet from Bayeux", where paintings of the conquest of England by the Norman Duke William were embroidered on a 70-meter canvas, to see firsthand that even in 1066 the weapons of Western and Eastern warriors were very similar, although they differed the lack of bows in the former and its universal presence in the latter. In the scenes of the battle on the "carpet of Bayeux", the bow can be seen in the hands of 29 warriors. However, 23 of them are depicted on the border, outside the main field, which clearly shows their secondary role, despite the fact that many knights on the main field are literally stuck with arrows. There you can also see four Norman foot soldiers in protective armor and with bows in their hands and one Saxon archer, dressed completely "at home". There is only one horse archer. He also has no armor and keeps behind the pursuing Saxon Norman knights who have no bows. It is unlikely that this is the forgetfulness of the embroiderers: all the other details of the weapons are shown on the carpet in sufficient detail and embroidered very carefully.
Conquest of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258 "Jami at-tavarih" ("Collection of chronicles") Rashid ad-din Fazlullah Hamadani. First quarter of the 14th century. State Library, Berlin.
This is not what we see in the miniatures of the East. Mongolian warriors, for example, are all with bows, although they are not always used in images. Interestingly, the wooden clubs of the foot Mongols look exactly the same as those of the equestrian Norman knights on the "carpet from Bayeux". Apparently, the main thing that attracted the warriors of that distant era was their cheapness … It turns out that in the space from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to Britain, cavalry warriors of the IV-VIII centuries and even up to the XI century had very similar protective equipment in general, spread thanks to the campaigns of nomadic tribes in the era of the Ancient World.
Turkish helmet 1500 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Sphero-conical helmets, chain mail - all this was known both in the West and in the East. In the East, in addition, armor was used from strips of hard dressed leather, which was rare in Europe. Heavy horse armor was not used at all in the West at that time, but it was widely used in China and Byzantium, and between these two states - in the army of the Sassanids and among the nomads who were at war with them. Comfortable saddles with high bows and stirrups, invented by the Chinese, who were unimportant riders, contributed to a change in fighting technique itself. Possessing such saddles, the horsemen not only fired from a galloping horse, but could also deliver strong blows with a spear.
Turkish saber of the 17th century. Length 88.9 cm (blade). Weight 1928 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
At the same time, thanks to the stirrups, the accuracy of the chopping blow increased, which led to the fact that the heavy sword gradually replaced the lighter saber. So not only the great empires, but also among the nomadic tribes that inhabited the steppe expanses of Eurasia in the III-VI centuries AD, had their "knights". They were practically not inferior in armament to the soldiers of the West and, just like the “knights from“Shahnameh”, widely used the bow.
Mongolian prince studies the Koran. "Jami at-tavarih" ("Collection of chronicles") by Rashid ad-din Fazlullah Hamadani. First quarter of the 14th century. State Library, Berlin.
