Crusade Warfare

This battle scene, painted on paper (already common in the Islamic world) in the twelfth century, depicts an Islamic garrison defending against Western knights. At the center is a Muslim warrior wearing a large turban. Fully clad in chain mail, he sits atop a horse and wields a sword and shield. Behind him to the left are archers, also in mail armor and turbans. Above him and to the right are Muslim foot soldiers protected only by large shields. Their enemy, the knight on the black horse, has been defeated and is falling to the ground. (Early-12th-century paper fragment, Cairo, Egypt / British Museum, London, UK / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY.)