The value of the additional visual sources for the study of historical weapons.

[ariel]

The more I look at the picture, the more doubts I have...

First, it cannot come from the Arab source. By the beginning of the 8th century, the idea of aniconism ( ban on human images) was already in a full swing in the Arab world.
Second, the style is Persian/Indopersian, even with clouds in the style of Chinese "chi"
Third, the armour looks East Asian: Mongols? Chinese? Even Persian, may be (???)
Fourth, composite bows.

My guess , this picture might be a part of Persian/ Moghul collection of miniatures 15-17 century.

The fact that it was used in a book dedicated to the history of Portugal and supposedly attributable to the battle at Jabal-al-Tariq is suspect. Not every reference or iconographic source can be accepted at face value.

I would dearly love to be wrong, but would need much more supportive evidence.

[Sancar]

This painting has nothing to do with Umayyad general Tarık Bin Ziyad or his invasion of Andulusian Spain. This is a scene from Shahnama, named "Charge of the Cavaliers of Faramouz". I can't say which time and place this miniature was painted for sure, but my educated guess is possibly in Iran, and more likely from post-Ilkhanid. It might be from Turkmen schools of art of Herat or Shiraz, or from Jelayirid period. The style of art looks like it is before Timurid period, so somewhere between Jalayirids and Timurids.

[ariel]

Thanks for the precise attribution. Very impressive.

[fernando]

Precious input, Sancar. While your info is the correct one, this saves me from having to contact the publishers of 'History of Portugal' work, for further details, something i promised and was about to do.
Now it is easy to browse the Net and learn that this is a work of Persian school, a gouache on paper by Abu'l-Qasim Manur Firdawsi (C.934-C.1020).
On the other hand ...
I did not say that this scene represented the invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, but was in the same page where the author narrates such events, apparently to call our attention for the efficiency of Islamic cavalry. What the legend side note refers is that "the quick progression of the Islamic armies, not only in the Iberian Peninsula but equally in other zones atacked by the Cavaliers of Islam (up to the Anatolic borders of the Bizantine empire, to the margins of the Indo and Uzbesquitan) was fundamentally based on the contingents of light cavalry, and so on ..."
Whether the parallelism between such scenes or the example chosen by the author is not so fortunate, is another issue.

[ariel]

Even worse: Firdawsi (10-11 cen) was the author of Shahname.
The miniature as per net references is either 14 or 17 century.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by ariel

Even worse: Firdawsi (10-11 cen) was the author of Shahname.
The miniature as per net references is either 14 or 17 century.

Well ... try this approach:
The Shahname (The Book of Kings) was written by Firdawsi between 977 and 1010.
Later in time a number of sumptuous illustrated copies were edited, many of them broken up in sheets being sold out there during the 20th century, some reaching a price over 9000 pounds.
So it seems plausible that the discussed illustration was painted by a miniaturist of the so called Persian school during the 14th century; being currently exhibited in the Louvre.
So much for the early version of the Muslim saber

[ariel]

Yup :-((((