Editing Cavalry (section)

===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]]