جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « warfare » در نشریات گروه « تاریخ »

As part of Arabs’ history, Ayyām al-ʿArab has always been a focus of attention for the historians studying the history of Islam and Arabs. However, their main concern has been literary and rhetorical aspects and they have been less concerned with the concept and phenomenon of battles among the nomad Arab tribes. This is while against the backdrop of geographical conditions and the dominant Pre-Islamic tribal system of Arabian Peninsula, battles were perceived as an integral reality of the Arabs’ social life. Studying the sociological contexts of Pre-Islamic battles, known as Ayyām al-ʿArab, and aiming at filling the existing research gap, this paper attempted to study the issue of warfare as Pre-Islamic Arabs perceived it. The hypothesis of this study is that it seems Arabs, beyond having an economic view of warfare, to secure their livelihoods, sought other purposes in battles. They considered warfare not as a form of banditry but as a popular sport in which the tribe's heroes enjoyed high positions. In addition, they sought hegemony, honor and dignity, courage, chivalry and eventually their salvation in it.

During the Islamic middle ages, besiegement was considered as one of the most frequent forms of military action. In order to ruin the resistance of the castle and take down the strong fenced cities, the raiders used various tricks, techniques, tools, and devices. Using ballistic devices, especially catapults, was extremely effective and determinative at the time. This article provides a documental description of various attack and defense functions of heavy ballistic armaments in castle wars of the Islamic period and examines how the utilisation of these kinds of weapons as a common technique in castle wars, is affecting the outcome of military operations during this historical period. It also showed that the aim of applying these armaments, the physical and destructive operational power, was not the only thing relied on, but it was partly for their ability to spread fear and panic and as a result, pushing a kind of psychological warfare against the enemy.