Recent comments in /f/history

failsafe07 t1_j3zbzz9 wrote

Reply to comment by KwisatzHaderach38 in Were muslim armies harder to maintain in the field? by DJacobAP

The book Dothraki are definitely better than the show, although they still have major issues. Bret Deveraux had a great series of articles on the subject over on his blog.

I’m a big fan of GRRM and I really hope he’s able to finish the series, because I badly want to read them, but I also like to acknowledge where he falls short in certain areas

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KwisatzHaderach38 t1_j3zbbqp wrote

Reply to comment by failsafe07 in Were muslim armies harder to maintain in the field? by DJacobAP

Doesn't really pertain to where he took the inspiration from, but sure, they're basically a faceless deus ex machina in the show, not much different from the green, scrubbing power of the Army of the Undead in the LOTR films. The ASOIAF books have a lot more nuance, but we'll see how that plays out if he ever finishes the final two.

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failsafe07 t1_j3zapad wrote

Reply to comment by GRCooper in Were muslim armies harder to maintain in the field? by DJacobAP

The crusaders were a deeply fractious bunch almost from the get go though. It would repeatedly bite them throughout the period. It didn’t during the first crusade in large part because the region was, if anything, even more fractious than the crusaders were, and to top it off, the specific parts of the region were something of a liminal space between the major powers of the region so after Antioch there wasn’t really anybody with any particular ability or will to stop the progress of the crusade to Jerusalem, so all the infighting wound up not really mattering

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sdg9998 t1_j3z0qmm wrote

Reply to When did government departments and government budgets become invented? by megamindwriter

Medieval guildhalls are usually associated with "professional association of artisans/craftsmen" kinda thing, but guildhalls were also used by local municipalities for tax collection and were the first entities to transform in city halls. wouldn't the municipal authority of collection of taxes be considered the forerunner of a modern government department?

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fuddstar t1_j3yymig wrote

Reply to comment by Low_Ad487 in Were muslim armies harder to maintain in the field? by DJacobAP

It’s this. Professional fighting forces.

Its absence implies laxity in command structures, which makes battle strategy nigh on impossible. There’s also a bit of a pre-Islam legacy of tribal smash n grab light cavalry fighting styles in play, but that’s also a part of under developed military professionalism.

For the initial crusades in the 11thC western forces were superior siege experienced, paid soldiers. Under Saladin in the 12thC, Muslim soldiery started getting its act together to more efficiently fight the western military machine.

Islamic forces and battle strategies would continue to evolve over the coming centuries to meet and better foreign invaders - and each other. See 1453 Mehmed II siege and conquest of Constantinople.

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