"Ayyubids on the Blacas Ewer, Mosul, 1232AD" Topic

Illustrations of Ayyubids on the Blacas Ewer, Mosul, 1232AD
Hunter with bow
Two infantry with sword & buckler
Men with spear & buckler or bow
Musicians
Ruler with bow and servant
Cavalry & infantry with sword & buckler

Does anyone have any more images of the shoulder or central band of the ewer?

MIRROR SITE
Illustrations of Ayyubids on the Blacas Ewer, Mosul, 1232AD

Druzhina
13th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

I do wonder whether we are not fooling ourselves when we use this sort of source for troops of the period. I would be interested to see whether this ewer has been studied in its context and what the conclusions were. That is because I am suspicious that these are not scenes of war, but of sport and show martial exercises, e,g with sword and buckler fencing that is a ritualised gladiatorial fight without a kill.
I note that on the cloisters of Monreale cathedral there are similar sculptures, this time of men with round shields and maces and again I wonder if that is sport or a specific illustration to a story, perhaps now lost.
Evidence for this would be that the cavalry appear to have neither armour nor bows and yet I bet that Ayyubid cavalry did have these items of equipment.

If you follow the link to the British Museum you can find a bibliography that include studies of the Blacas Ewer.

They may be of sport, martial exercise or war. One has been identified as depicting a scene from the Shahnama of Firdausi, a poem that includes a lot of war.

Here are Negroid warriors with mace in the Carved Column Capitals in the Cloister of Monreale Cathedral and
a similar scene of Two Men in Combat with Clubs, from Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 210, f.4v, Avranches, France, 1154-1158

I trust all medieval illustrations would be questioned. Illustrations of people standing around a seated emperor are used as sources, but are they of war equipment?

An Ayyubid ghulam of turkic origin would be expected to have a bow, others – not necessarily, mostly not.

Druzhina
Egyptian/Syrian Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

in this period?

I'd use chaps around a throne if we thought it showed typical equipment. Thus I would suggest that Justinian's guards on the Ravenna mosaic are in court uniforms. Something more provincial such as the Maximian chair, likely made in Byzantine Egypt I would suggest is a better representation of reality, though even that is heavily classicised.
We have to try and establish the context of artefacts and in the case of this ewer it looks more like the artists are representing story scenes with conventional images than real life battle scenes.
It is easy for us to be too desperate to see a troop type in a piece of artwork because we are so desperately short of images.

I do not mean just Roman emperors.

What makes an image conventional? Is assuming that all Ayyubid cavalry have bow a convention? Kurdish, Syrian, Bedouin, North African cavalry do not have to have a bow. You can look for conventions in a collection of Shahnama images from the 14th to 17th century, showing the same episode.

Perhaps because David Nicolle used black and white photos and other peoples drawing in books, his drawings are sometimes wrong. It is useful to see detailed colour pictures of items referenced and to see them in context. In this case including the entire ewer. You would not know from Nicolle's drawing that the leg of a man with two-headed spear and buckler on the central band of the Blacas Ewer ends in a serpent. Some of the more interesting figures are on the central band, hence my request for images.

Your point is taken, but, few medieval sources are of contemporary battles. Bible stories dominate Christian sources. Few of these are of battle scenes. The Throne of Archbishop Maximian of Ravenna, Constantinople or Alexandria, 545–553AD has no battles. The Maqamat of al-Hariri is often cited for Osprey & other pictures of 13th century Islamic troops, it has no battles or combats.

Druzhina
‌Ancient Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

I have added two large full images: Blacas Ewer, centred on sides 3 & 4 & Blacas Ewer, centred on sides 7 & 8 that give a good view of the central band and a larger image of Men with spear & buckler or bow on side 10 – central band

Druzhina
13th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers