The Armour Archive

Good morning,

I've heard mentioned a couple of times by Brian Price and Scott Cozad (who know what they're doing ) about some plates from the middle east showing demonstrative moves on how to use a curved sword. Sort of an Arabic Talhoffer manual. Apparently, they might be in some local library in a tiny town somewhere in Saudi Arabia. Has anyone else ever heard of these, or (even better) have a copy they could share? I'd love to learn more about this. Thanks for your time.

Alejandro

There's tons of furusiyya literature, but in terms of detailed fencing, none that I've heard of. The Mamluk manual I have in translation recommends that one learn to fence on horseback by means of playing lots of polo...

Well, I'm not just looking for fencing. I'm looking for any documentable middle eastern swordplay. What's furusiyya? Sounds intruiging! I'm just starting research on this, so any help or direction is appreciated!

Horsemanship.

Sorry to say, but unless something new has come out, very little of this is going to be of use to you: there's a lot needing to be translated still. Mr. Price may know something I don't -- I haven't seen him in two years.