In Murcia, Valencia, and other eastern provinces, men of the highest
rank might be seen in public bareheaded. The warrior king, Aben Hud,
never wore a turban, neither did his rival and competitor Al Hamar,
the founder of the Alhambra. A short cloak called Taylasan similar
to that seen in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
was worn by all ranks. It had a hood or cape which people of condition
sometimes drew over the head; but the lower class never.
A Moslem cavalier in the thirteenth century, as described by Ibnu
Said, was equipped for war very much in the Christian style. Over a
complete suit of mail he wore a short scarlet tunic. His helmet was of
polished steel; a shield was slung at his back; he wielded a huge
spear with a broad point, sometimes a double point. His saddle was
cumbrous, projecting very much in front and in rear, and he rode
with a banner fluttering behind him.
In the time of Al Khattib of Granada, who wrote in the fourteenth
century, the Moslems of Andalus had resumed the Oriental costumes, and
were again clad and armed in Arabic fashion: with light helmet, thin
but well tempered cuirass, long slender lance, commonly of reed,
Arabian saddle and leathern buckler, made of double folds of the
skin of the antelope. A wonderful luxury prevailed at that time in the
arms and equipments of the Granadian cavaliers. Their armor was inlaid
with gold and silver.
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