Weapons and armor of the Mongol warriors (part two)
"Come out, look at the point of my spear,
Try to put aside the excuse [of my horse]!
If you are a mountain, you will collapse from the foot,
And if you are a stone, do not stay in place.
Where could you see people of war
[You] who did not hear [even] the barking foxes. "
(Fazlullah Rashid-ad-Din. Jami-at-Tavarih. Baku: “Nagy Yevi”, 2011. C.133)
Try to put aside the excuse [of my horse]!
If you are a mountain, you will collapse from the foot,
And if you are a stone, do not stay in place.
Where could you see people of war
[You] who did not hear [even] the barking foxes. "
(Fazlullah Rashid-ad-Din. Jami-at-Tavarih. Baku: “Nagy Yevi”, 2011. C.133)
In the melee, the Mongol warriors used a whole arsenal: spears, light darts, palm trees, axes, maces. Darts had small petiolate and vtulchatye iron tips with a long spike for mounting in the shaft. But the dart in the presence of beautiful bows was auxiliary weapons. But the spears differed a great variety. Plano Carpini reported that the Mongols "on the neck of the iron spears have a hook, which, if they can, pull the man off the saddle." The tips themselves had a long and narrow diamond-shaped feather or an elongated triangle. But the spears, with a wide feather, for fighting with riders who do not have armor, were rarely used. In this regard, the so-called palm tree, which had the appearance of a massive knife, on a long spear shaft was more widely used. It was a piercing weapon, borrowed, it is believed, from forest hunters.
Miniature from the "Collection of Chronicles" by Rashid al-Din. XIV century. Genghis Khan, surrounded by their nukers. (National Library of France, Paris).
Plano Carpini is an obligatory weapon of the Mongol warrior who calls the ax, which the Mongols had several types. According to M.V. Gorelika, there were even axes meant for throwing. But there is no written evidence of their use, although it is known about throwing Francis, the ax of the Frankish warriors.
The seventh drawing of the illustrated Myoko Surai Ecotoba scroll on the Mongol invasion of Japan. Pictured is Takezaki Samurai Cienade fighting the Mongols and the Battle of Bunji in 1274.
In the melee used weakly curved sabers. Archaeologists do not find them too often, but they do. Find and crosshairs from them. In particular, many such crosshairs were discovered in the area of the Zolotarev settlement near Penza. Handles were located to the blade at a slight angle. Moreover, bladed weapons, as the most expensive, enjoyed the most notable warriors. Less prominent used maces, and often the simplest with a warhead, carved from butt of a tree, which is confirmed in visual sources. On the handle there was a fastener for a belt loop through which a hand was threaded. Later, in order to increase the efficiency of the mace, its smooth impact part was supplemented with faces and ribs-blades. The Russian warriors called the multi-blade mace the “Shestoper” (six feathers), or “pernach” (if there are more than six feathers). Judging by the miniatures, the Mongols and straight swords were not shunned, most likely exported as trophies from China. In any case, the Mongols would hardly have conquered China and would have missed the opportunity to use the rich trophies taken there, including swords and spears.
Another illustration from the Myoko Surai Ecotoba rollout. It is obvious that not all the Mongol warriors depicted here have metal armor. In this picture there are only three of them.
As for protective weapons, here it is necessary to note the following interesting fact. Thus, among the finds in the south-eastern part of the country are known spheroconic helmets with a high spire and iron masks, with strange hook-nosed faces and a characteristic tear-shaped eye slit, broad eyebrows stray and mustaches bent upwards. Some researchers believed that they had a clearly fake character, and were not used in battle, others that they belonged to the soldiers of Ancient Russia. A.I. Solovyov notes that M.V. Gorelik still managed to prove that these helmets with goggles are related to the defensive armament of the Mongols. The anthropological type depicted on the mask reflects “the ancient Altai ideal of the husband-hero”, which “lasted in Asia, despite the change of nations, languages and races, from the 5th century BC. BC er XV century n er. "
His opinion is interesting that in battle these masks made a heavy impression on the enemy. And not only by its “dead” metal face with bright lively eyes, but also by its alien anthropological type, which usually always looks threatening. For example, ancient writers constantly emphasized the repulsive impression that the Huns made on the Romans with their Mongoloid appearance. Correspondingly, the European type was also unpleasant to the indigenous inhabitants of Northern Asia, who belonged to the Mongoloid race. No wonder they called the Europeans people with bird eyes and noses, and the Japanese and did long-nosed barbarians. But it is clear that these helmets belonged to the nobility in order to stand out among their subordinates and have the appearance of impassive and stern.
Plate armor made of leather plates glued together, details of which were discovered at the site of the battle with the Mongols in Japan. (Historical Museum in Genko, Japan)
The helmets of the rest of the Mongolian troops are known mainly from the images. They were assembled from several (from two to eight) forged sectors, and the connecting seams of these plates on the dome were also closed with narrow plates on which the edges were cut. The carved scalloped edge of a metal plate that held the base of the crown near the helmet served as decoration. If these patch plates were made of blued metal, then the dome was usually polished, which added elegance to the product. Barmitsy were, most likely, leather. “The helmet is iron or copper from above,” says Plano Karpini, “and what covers the neck and throat all around is made of leather. And all these pieces of leather are made in the manner indicated above, ”- they were interconnected by straps of leather. Few of the surviving helmets have holes on the bottom edge. This means that the barmitsa they had a chain mail, and had two pieces, one of which was hung from the back of the helmet, and the other - in front. At the same time, at the base of the crown, there were semicircular cuts for the eyes. Judging by the images in the manuscripts, there were also felt barmies with headphones, leather-reinforced and metal plaques.
Korean helmet XV - XVII centuries. Weight 1882.4 (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
Mongolian helmet with headphones from the Mongol Invasion Museum in Genko, Japan. Weight 2 kg.
Mongolian helmet of a similar type. (Historical Museum in Genko, Japan)
As for protective weapons, the Mongols also received the broadest - we emphasize this word - “the broadest”, distribution. Some historians even believed that all Mongol warriors wore heavy weapons, for they had leather and metal armor. Turning to the Japanese miniatures, from manuscripts telling about the attempts of the Mongol invasion of Japan, we, however, will see that not all the soldiers wore armor. Nevertheless, finds at the scene of the fighting show that the Mongols had protective equipment. According to the manufacturing technology, they were divided into several types. First of all, it is lamellar shells made of bone and metal plates, brigandine, as well as laminar armor and armor from large plates. The details of the lamellar shells practically did not differ from those used by the warriors of Southern Siberia and Central Asia at the same time. Krupnoplastinchatye armor represented the shells of metal rectangles or squares of thickness one millimeter, which were first riveted in horizontal rows to the belts, and then these strips were collected into a single armor. The result was a tier of plates arranged in such a way that they partially entered a row behind the row. Sometimes these armor plates riveted on a fabric or leather base.
In brigandine, as in the West, the inner surface of the armor was hit with metal, so that only the heads of the rivets remained on the surface. Laminar patches were made of wide leather bands glued together in several layers and stitched with threads. But in the 15th century, technology changed: the bands were no longer tied to each other, but forged from iron and riveted to the belts on the wrong side. Original combined shells with sequential alternation of laminar and lamellar sets were also used.
Tibetan armor with sequential alternation of laminar and lamellar sets. (Royal Arsenal, Leeds, England)
Leather shells were varnished and painted with colors in green, pink, red and orange, and decorated with decorative embroidery. The shells, entirely made of metal, were either blackened or, on the contrary, polished so that “a person can see his face in them”. And although such polishing clearly reduced their service life, aesthetics in this case took precedence over all expediency. The plates were repeatedly forged "cold", which, due to the surface work hardening, increased their strength.
Original Mongolian bone plate armor. (Historical Museum in Genko, Japan)
Sometimes the Mongolian shells resembled long caftans with a large slit to the very back of the back and blades-shoulders covering the arms to the elbows. Such armor, made of rigid materials, the Mongolian warriors called "huyag" and "weight loss huyag", which can be translated as "shell, stitched with straps."
Reconstruction of the Mongolian military costume of the invasion of Japan. (Historical Museum in Genko, Japan)
According to the description of Plano Carpini, the Mongolian armor of the thirteenth century consisted of four parts: a breastplate, a backrest that connected to the breastplate with fasteners on the sides. Both parts were attached to each other with the help of iron arcs, which bend around the body like straps. Hands from the shoulder to the hand were protected by long shoulder pads attached to the same arcs, and the legs were covered with rectangular legguards attached to the breastplate.
Many of the armor resembled a robe, and were also long-haired, right up to the ankles (although there were also short, resembling a jacket with short sleeves), and others had long shoulders and shoulders. But usually the shoulders of a rectangular shape, or curly, which made them look like a leaf of a tree, reached only elbows. Since the XIV century, their design has changed. Now the shoulders began to look like narrow metal strips, ledges riveted in a horizontal position on several belts arranged vertically. And they were tied to the convex metal plates that protected the shoulders of a warrior.
At the site of the landing of the Mongols in Japan, such iron stirrups were also found. (Historical Museum in Genko, Japan)
And that’s how the Mongolian horses of that era could look like. (Zoo in Prague)
Used by the Mongols and "soft" armor, which again can be clearly seen in the miniatures dedicated to the Mongol invasion of Japan. They were called “Khatangu Degel”, which meant “hard, strong robe”. Most likely, it was these dense "lashes" that were the most popular military clothing. In the XIII century, large metal plates were sewn to them from the inside, and from the outside, metal overlays were fastened on the chest and back (they are also called seeds in the Russian tradition of arms), also discovered by archaeologists during excavations. In the XIV century, mail sets, which had not been distributed among the Mongols before, began to enter the sets of defensive armaments.
A shield of twigs braided with threads, armed with a Timurid rider. But the Mongols used the same shields. (Royal Arsenal, Leeds, England)
“They have a shield,” says Plano Karpini, “made of willow or other rods, but we do not think that they would wear them except in the camp for the protection of the emperor and princes, and even then only at night.” Round shields of this type strongly spring, and thus easily quench the blows inflicted by the bladed weapon, but the arrows with flat tips enter well between the rods, because of which they were made, as a rule, two and three-layered, and in the center they placed a traditional metal umbon. Also used wood and multi-layered skin.
Tibetan sword XVIII - XIX centuries. Length 99,1, see Total Weight: 1173,7 (Metropolitan Museum, New York)
The Mongolian horse armor, which appeared by them, by the way, earlier than similar armor, began to be used by Europeans, is described in detail in the work of Plano Carpini. Judging by it, they were of the laminar type and looked like a few large parts that covered the war horse from both sides "from tail to head and tied at the saddle ... behind the saddle on the back and ... at the neck." The breast of the horse was covered by a breastplate; another piece covered the croup. “In this piece they make a hole through which they expose the tail,” the papal legate noted. And then he calls the length of such a shell: "All parts extend to the knees or to the ties of the legs." The horse's neck was also protected by a carapace plate, and the muzzle was protected by an iron mask. There is every reason to believe that under this armor there could be felt quilted blanket so that metal or bone plates would not rub the horse's skin, and to absorb sweat.
Sources:
1. Giovanni del Plano Carpini. History of the Mongols. Guillaume de Rubruk. Journey to the Eastern countries / Translation by A. I. Malein. - M .: State publishing house of geographical literature, 1957.
2. 2. Kozin S. A. Secret legend of the Mongols. - M .: Association of scientific publications KMK, 2002.
3. Men-da bei-lu (“A complete description of the Mongol-Tatars”) / Per. N. Ts. Munkueva. — M.: Nauka, 1975.
4. Letter from brother Julian about the Mongol war // Historical archive. - 1940. - T. 3. - S. 83-90.
5. Rashid ad-Din. Collection of chronicles / Per. from Persian O. I. Smirnova, edited by prof. A. A. Semenova. - M., L .: Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1952. - T. 1, book. 2.
To be continued ...
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