"Battle of the River Salado" Topic

"Many of the battles fought between Islam and Christianity have been hailed as the decisive encounter between the two religions. Few of them can have been more decisive than the crushing defeat of the wealthy emir of Marinid Morocco, Abu al-Hasan, inflicted by King Alfonso XI of Castile and King Afonso IV of Portugal on a clear October day in 1340 in the far southwest of Spain. The Battle of Salado was blessed by the Papacy as part of a new crusade against the infidel; a relic of the True Cross was held aloft in the battle by a priest dressed in white, seated on a white mule. Abu al-Hasan put round his neck on the morning of the battle a reliquary holding a fragment of the Prophet's clothing. He was determined to smash Christian power in Spain with a major holy war, or jihad, after decades in which the Muslim hold on southern Spain had been slowly eroded.

Later chronicles speak of an army of 70,000 cavalry and 400,000 to 700,000 foot soldiers massed at the Moroccan port of Ceuta to cross the straits to Algeciras, a port still in Muslim hands. The best estimate today suggests perhaps a total of 60,000. The Christian kings between them could muster 22,000 horse and foot. Contemporary opinion held that in open battle the Moroccans were difficult to defeat, but open battle is exactly what Alfonso XI sought…"

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Anyone wargame this battle?

Armand

Here is a full exploration of the battle relating to the modern terrain, by a prolific author on the history of Tarifa and the events of the reconquista in the area. IN fortunaltely his map is not much more help than that of the OP article, but he has walked the ground.

'La batalla del Salado sobre la toponimia actual de Tarifa'

Autores: Manuel López Fernández
Localización: Aljaranda: revista de estudios tarifeños, ISSN 1130-7986, ISSN-e 2386-821X, Nº. 67, 2007, págs. 2-10
Idioma: español
Texto completo (pdf)

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Gracias!….

Armand