Reconquista; Almoravid Ghuzz Horse Archers

It's been a month or so since my last post; the spread of the coronavirus, the lock down and the need for me to self isolate completely for medical reasons have all played their part as have the worry about my parents who usually rely on me for day to day help.

I'm sure we all have our own anxieties about the outbreak and ways of dealing with it. I have to say, I have not been coping  so well of late. That is, until I turned my hand to the brush again that some semblance of calm was achieved.

I have just finished basing these Ghuzz Horse Archers. As the (now cancelled) date for Partizan began to get closer and the sheer number of horses I needed to paint I decided to lower the overall quality and go for the speed painted option for the horse flesh with both what was left of the Islamic and Christian armies for the display game. Thus, the horses here have been painted rapidly, the horse archers less so but they were hurried along to some extent too. It is somewhat ironic that i now have all the time in the world to complete these armies!

The "Ghuzz" Horse Archers in Spain came from the Oghuz, a Western Turkic tribe. By the tenth Century Byzantine sources were calling them Muslim Turkmens as distinct from Shamanistic or Bhuddist sects. They are recorded as being present as well paid mercenaries in Almohad armies but not in Almoravid forces. I have basically extrapolated from the Almohad sources and made the decision to include them at an earlier date in the Almoravid force. They could also be reasonably pressed into any 11th Century Muslim army of the Crusades if I ever feel the urge.