| Irish Marine | 28 Apr 2019 2:34 p.m. PST |
Did the Muslims have a religious military order like the Knights of Saint John. |
| MajorB | 28 Apr 2019 2:57 p.m. PST |
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| skipper John | 28 Apr 2019 4:01 p.m. PST |
Every army has it's elites. |
| Glengarry5 | 28 Apr 2019 5:50 p.m. PST |
They did have Ghazi's, religiously motivated volunteers, who were more loosely organised brigands than the Crusading orders knights, to raid and pillage. Some did organise into "corporations coalesce into semi-chivalric fraternities"
(from the Ghazi Wikipedia entry): link |
| 14Bore | 29 Apr 2019 2:16 a.m. PST |
Some Islamic rulers forcefully took Christian children and made Muslim warriors of them. |
Puster  | 29 Apr 2019 9:25 a.m. PST |
In short: no Religious order existed, but not in the way of "knightly military orders" like the Templars of Knights of St. John. In some aspects that was not necessary as many aspects of the Ottoman or Islamic society are already more structured towards a holy war, and on the other hand the social structure differed a bit making elite armed soldiers (as in the western "Knight") not feasable. Islamic military orders where either made up of slaves, as with the Janissarys or Mamluks, or where composed of free men where more of a social group that provides light forces, as with the Akinci, or "specialists", like the Assassins. That said, my knowledge really does not cover all of the Islamic society, and it covers well over 1000 years over dozens of cultures and hundreds of realms, so organizations closer to the knights orders probably do exist. |
| Griefbringer | 29 Apr 2019 10:41 a.m. PST |
For an elite military organisation, what about the Mamluks (Mamelukes) of late medieval Egypt? |
| SleepyDragon | 30 Apr 2019 12:04 a.m. PST |
Remember also the Knights of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem had a primary mission of running (and serving in) hospitals. The combination of roles seems unlikely in Islam (though both roles were highly commended). |
| Zephyr1 | 30 Apr 2019 9:02 p.m. PST |
Was there an equivalent of a "knight" in their armies? I always thought it was 'sipahi', but I'm probably wrong… |
| coopman | 01 May 2019 7:17 p.m. PST |
I've seen some cavalry figures called Royal Ghulams |
| Druzhina | 01 May 2019 10:22 p.m. PST |
Was there an equivalent of a "knight" in their armies? I always thought it was 'sipahi', but I'm probably wrong Sipahi means soldiers. The Ottomans and others had timariots – holders of the income from a "timar" land-grant. The timar was similar to a knight's fief but usually non-hereditary. A timariot with a very large timar was a "zaim". Ottoman timariots could be muslim or christian. There is an arabic term equivalent to timar which I can't remember.
Druzhina
Illustrations of Ottoman Costume & Soldiers |
receives a gift from his wife…
