Dr. Nicolle has written another Classic and Mr. McBrides color plates are superb. For all History buffs, teachers, and students this is a fine book on a highly neglected topic. The author takes you back in time and gives the reader a detailed, colorful, scene. From the combatants tactics, dress, weapons,and geography. To a slice of civilian life are all covered. Had their been some colorful maps I would have given it 5 stars.

This book was very interesting for my sixth grade readers. I found it was very factual and informative. No opinion discolored any of the facts.

Another of Dr. Nicolle's excellent overviews of medieval military organizationa and equipment. The soldiers and mercenaries of the Caliphate, the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid dynasties as well as other dynastic and succesor states are illustrated and described. Anyone interested in this period as well as the early Crusades and Muslim Spain will find something of interest. The cross fertilization of equipment, tactics and troop types is especially evident in this work. Dr. Nicolle actually suggests that the kite shield, so often associated with the Normans, could well have come from the Byzantines, via Muslim Sicily or Spain! Cons: insufficient maps. Pros: Angus McBride's beautiful color plates. Thus, 4 stars.

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