Editing Cavalry (section)

==Islamic States==
{{main|Religious war|Early Muslim conquests}}

===Arabs===
{{main|Mobile guard|List of battles of Muhammad}}
[[File:Ikhwan.jpg|thumb|left|Arab [[Camel cavalry|camelry]]]]

The Islamic Prophet Muhammad made use of cavalry in many of his military campaigns including the [[Expedition of Dhu Qarad]],<ref>Mubarakpuri, The Sealed Nectar, p. 231. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20110728084550/http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Books/SM_tsn/ch6s1.html online])</ref> and the [[Expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha (Al-Is)|expedition of Zaid ibn Haritha in al-Is]] which took place in September, 627 AD, fifth month of 6 AH of the [[Islamic calendar]].<ref name=hawarey>{{cite book|last=Hawarey|first=Mosab|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vJVqNwAACAAJ&q=9789957051648|isbn=9789957051648|title=The Journey of Prophecy; Days of Peace and War (Arabic)|publisher=Islamic Book Trust |year=2010}}</ref>

Early organized Arab mounted forces under the [[Rashidun]] [[caliphate]] comprised a [[light cavalry]] armed with [[lance]] and [[sword]]. Its main role was to attack the enemy flanks and rear. These relatively lightly armored horsemen formed the most effective element of the Muslim armies during the later stages of the Islamic conquest of the Levant. The best use of this lightly armed fast moving cavalry was revealed at the '''[[Battle of Yarmouk]]''' (636 AD) in which [[Khalid ibn Walid]], knowing the skills of his horsemen, used them to turn the tables at every critical instance of the battle with their ability to engage, disengage, then turn back and attack again from the flank or rear. A strong cavalry regiment was formed by Khalid ibn Walid which included the veterans of the campaign of Iraq and Syria. Early Muslim historians have given it the name ''Tali'a mutaharrikah''(طليعة متحركة), or the [[Mobile guard]]. This was used as an advance guard and a strong striking force to route the opposing armies with its greater mobility that give it an upper hand when maneuvering against any [[Byzantine]] army. With this mobile striking force, the conquest of Syria was made easy.<ref>p. 239, Muir</ref>

The [[Battle of Talas]] in 751 AD was a conflict between the Arab [[Abbasid]] Caliphate and the [[China|Chinese]] [[Tang dynasty]] over the control of [[Central Asia]]. Chinese infantry were routed by [[Arab]] cavalry near the bank of the River Talas.

Until the 11th century the classic cavalry strategy of the Arab Middle East incorporated the ''razzia'' tactics of fast moving raids by mixed bodies of horsemen and infantry. Under the talented leadership of [[Saladin]] and other Islamic commanders the emphasis changed to Mamluk horse-archers backed by bodies of irregular light cavalry. Trained to rapidly disperse, harass and regroup these flexible mounted forces proved capable of withstanding the previously invincible heavy knights of the western crusaders at battles such as Hattin in 1187.<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Nicolle |page=30 |title=Hattin 1187. Saladin's greatest victory |date=28 January 1993 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=978-1-85532-284-4}}</ref>

===Mamluks===
{{main|Mamluk}}
Originating in the 9th century as Central Asian ''ghulams'' or captives utilised as mounted auxiliaries by Arab armies,<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Nicolle |pages=14–15 |title=The Armies of Islam 7th-11th Centuries|date=29 July 1982 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=0-85045-448-4}}</ref> Mamluks were subsequently trained as cavalry soldiers rather than solely mounted-archers, with increased priority being given to the use of lances and swords.<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Nicolle |page=30 |title=Hattin 1187. Saladin's greatest victory |date=28 January 1993 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=978-1-85532-284-4}}</ref>  
Mamluks were to follow the dictates of [[Furusiyya|al-furusiyya]],<ref>tradition of al-furusiyya is defined by principles of horsemanship, chivalry, and the mutual dependence of the rider and the horse</ref> a code of conduct that included values like courage and generosity but also doctrine of cavalry tactics, horsemanship, archery and treatment of wounds.

By the late 13th century the Manluk armies had evolved into a professional elite of cavalry, backed by more numerous but less well-trained footmen.<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Nicolle |page=15 |title=The Manluks 1250-1517|date=29 July 1993 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=1-85532-314-1}}</ref>

===Maghreb===
[[File:Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix 025.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Morocco|Moroccan]] with his [[Arabian horse]] along the [[Barbary coast]]]]

The Islamic Berber states of North Africa employed elite horse mounted cavalry armed with spears and following the model of the original Arab occupiers of the region. Horse-harness and weapons were manufactured locally and the six-monthly stipends for horsemen were double those of their infantry counterparts. During the 8th century [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula|Islamic conquest of Iberia]] large numbers of horses and riders were shipped from North Africa, to specialise in raiding and the provision of support for the massed Berber footmen of the main armies.<ref>{{cite book|first=Dr. David|last=Nicole|page=17|title=The Moors. The Islamic West 7th–15th centuries AD|date=25 January 2001|publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=1-85532-964-6}}</ref>

Maghrebi traditions of mounted warfare eventually influenced a number of [[sub-Saharan African]] polities in the medieval era. The [[Eso Ikoyi|Esos of Ikoyi]], military aristocrats of the [[Yoruba people]]s, were a notable manifestation of this phenomenon.<ref>Johnson, Samuel (1921), ''The History of the Yorubas, from the earliest times to the beginning of the British protectorate'', p. 73-75.</ref>

[[File:Group of Kanem-Bu warriors.jpg|thumb|right| [[Kanembu people|Kanem-Bu]] warriors armed with spears in the retinue of a mounted war chief. ''The Earth and Its Inhabitants'', 1892]]

===Al-Andalus===
{{main|Al-Andalus}}

===Iran===
{{main|Qizilbash|Zamburak}}
Qizilbash, were a class of Safavid militant warriors in Iran during the 15th to 18th centuries, who often fought as elite cavalry.<ref name="columbia">{{cite web|url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00islamlinks/ikram/part2_19.html#n02|title=part2_19|author=Frances Pritchett|publisher=columbia.edu|access-date=17 January 2014}}</ref><ref>Muhammad Latif, The History of the Panjab (Calcutta, 1891), p. 200.</ref><ref name="Greenwood Publishing Group">{{cite book|last1=Cornell|first1=Vincent J.|title=Voices of Islam (Praeger perspectives)|date=2007|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0275987329|page=225 vol.1|oclc=230345942}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Parker|first1=Charles H.|title=Global Interactions in the Early Modern Age, 1400–1800|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1139491419|page=53|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKgs8-pj4_YC}}</ref>

<gallery class="center">
File:Qezelbash.JPG|Manikin of a Safavid [[Qizilbash]], showing characteristic red cap ([[Sa'dabad Palace]], [[Tehran]]).
File:Canonnier Persan. Auguste Wahlen. Moeurs, usages et costumes de tous les peuples du monde. 1843.jpg|[[Persia]]n [[Zamburak]].
</gallery>

===Ottoman===
{{main|Sipahi|Akinji}}
During its period of greatest expansion, from the 14th to 17th centuries, cavalry formed the powerful core of the Ottoman armies. Registers dated 1475 record 22,000 ''Sipahi''  feudal cavalry levied in Europe, 17,000 ''Sipahis'' recruited from Anatolia, and 3,000 ''Kapikulu'' (regular body-guard cavalry).<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Nicolle |page=9 |title=The Janissaries |isbn=1-85532-413-X}}</ref> During the 18th century however the Ottoman mounted troops evolved into light cavalry serving in the thinly populated regions of the Middle East and North Africa.<ref>{{cite book|first=David|last=Nicolle|page=8 |title=Armies of the Ottoman Empire 1775-1820|date=9 March 1998|publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=1-85532-697-3}}</ref> Such frontier horsemen were largely raised by local governors and were separate from the main field armies of the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the 19th century modernised ''Nizam-I Credit'' ("New Army") regiments appeared, including full-time cavalry units officered from the horse guards of the Sultan.<ref>{{cite book|first=David|last=Nicolle|page=37 |title=Armies of the Ottoman Empire 1775-1820|date=9 March 1998|publisher=Bloomsbury USA |isbn=1-85532-697-3}}</ref> 
<gallery class="center" heights="180">
File:Sipahi.jpg|Ottoman [[Sipahi]].
File:Mamluke.jpg|An Ottoman [[Mamluk]] cavalryman from 1810, armed with a pistol.
File:Sueleymanname Akinci-Beys.png|[[Akinji|Akinci]] of the [[Balkan]]s.
File:1396-Battle of Nicopolis-Hunername-2.jpg|Ottoman [[Ghazi (warrior)|Ghazi]] cavalrymen during the [[Battle of Nicopolis]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Lokman |url=http://warfare.atwebpages.com/Ottoman/Ottoman.htm |title=Battle of Nicopolis (1396) |year=1588 |work=Hünernâme |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529094441/http://warfare.atwebpages.com/Ottoman/Ottoman.htm |archive-date=2013-05-29 }}</ref>
</gallery>