Retrieving the Shape of War Equipments of the Ilkhani Era, Based on the Pictures of the Historical Sources of the Period

The expansion of territory and defense of the existing territories has been one of significant importance to the rulers throughout history, therefore, equipping the military and designing new war equipment  was a constant devour for all power institutions. In fact, the construction of war equipments for the purpose of defense, consolidation and expansion of the ruling power has always been the concern of said institutions in different ages.
Ilkhans have also needed to build military equipment such as various types of armors and weapons to ensure their authority inside and outside their territory. They needed efficient weapons to show their glory and expand their territory and maintain their power. Therefore, skilled weapon makers were hired. Meanwhile, the attention of Iranian painters has recorded the history and details of war scenes and weapons used. Weapons and war equipments from the Ilkhani period are very rare and have artistic features.
 Today, despite archeological excavations in Ilkhani sites, not much information has been obtained about these equipment. In the meantime, paintings of the Ilkhani period, due to dealing with battle scenes, are considered as suitable sources to know about the types of war equipments of this period. In other words, the paintings left from the Ilkhani period are pictorial documents that provide us with an image of the war equipments popular in that era. In fact, the realism of paintings in the Ilkhani period compared to other periods of Iranian painting makes it possible to rely on them in order to gain insight about the shape of weapons and to reconstruct the weapons of the Ilkhani period. In addition, writers such as Rashid al-Din Fazlallah Hamdani have recorded the culture of the Ilkhans in Jame al-Tawarikh manuscript in the order of history. The pictures in Jame al-Tawarikh provide us with the details of the life of the Ilkhans. Also, travelers like Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, who saw the court of Ilkhans and recorded their observations, are considered valuable sources.
The present research is to study and analyze the paintings of the Ilkhani period, historical books, texts and travelogues, not only to study the types of war equipment used in this period, but also to present a scheme of them for further familiarization. The purpose of this article is to examine the form, decoration and use of the weapons of the Ilkhani period. in this regard, the present study is a historical, descriptive, and analytical research, and based on manuscripts and written historical sources, aims to answer the question of what kind of war equipments were used in the Ilkhani period? What form and decorations these war equipments had? If the forms and patterns of the war equipment in this period, indicate the military rank of the owner? And if these equipments had a military use or they were just ornamental?
The findings of this research show that during the Ilkhanate era, a variety of swords, maces, spears, bows and arrows, defensive shields, armors, helmets and catapults were used during campaigns in the fields of war, and that except for maces with animal heads, other equipments had military use. The evidence shows that arrows and bows were among the most used war equipments in this period, the most frequent of which are in the book Jame al-Tawarikh and Demot's Shahnameh, and it is less common in other manuscripts left from that period. The drawing bows in this manuscript are similar, and only in the book of the Manafe al-Heyvan, a different bow is used. The arrows were carried inside the slings decorated with animal and plant motifs.
According to the paintings of this period, in addition to military use and hunting and court ceremonies use, bows and arrows were sometimes used as gifts to the Emperor or Khan. After the bow and arrow, the most abundant are the war maces, which are the most numerous in Demotte Shahnameh and manuscripts Jame al-Tavarikh. Their difference is in the cross-section of the maces, which are multifaceted, winged, spherical, and maces in the shape of animal heads. Winged, round and multifaceted maces are used for military purposes, whereas, maces in the shape of animal heads are more like ornamental maces. This variety of mace in the paintings shows the importance of this war equipment among heroes and powerful people. In the paintings of this period, the mace can be seen in the hands of kings, officials, warriors and heroes in battlefields, hunting, court ceremonies and hand-to-hand combat. The image of a mace is not seen in Manafe al-Heyvan and Al-Athar Al-Bakiyah.
Spears come third in popularity. The image of a spear can be seen in the manuscripts of Jame al-Tawarikh and Demotte Shahnameh, but is not present in other manuscripts. Bayonets without blades, short and long, are connected to a long wooden handle, and sometimes a small flag is installed on their upper part.
The sword can be seen in all the examined manuscripts, but with less focus compared other equipments. The depicted swords have thin and curved blades and were placed inside a decorated scabbard. This goes back to the fighting style of the Ilkhans, because the Ilkhans were skilled horsemen whose army consisted of cavalry with bows and arrows who aimed shot atop horses. Also, the infantry were mostly equipped with war equipments such as spears, therefore, one of the largest volumes of equipments belongs to these two types. The image of the sword can be seen in court ceremonies, battlefields, hand-to-hand combat and fighting with legendary creatures in the hands of heroes and officials, and in some paintings in the hands of the Prophet and his companions.
In terms of military equipment, the most abundant are helmets, which, in addition to covering the head, have a hanger to protect the neck. Most of the manuscripts helmets have a horn-like appendage at the top, which sometimes ends with a cloth ribbon or a bunch of hair. The drawn helmets show the military position of the people, in other words, the helmets of commanders, soldiers and heroes are distinctive. The shields depicted in this manuscript are round and circular, they look easily portable and sometimes their surface is decorated with geometric, eslimi, plant, and animal motifs. Only one example of a shield in Jama al-Tawarikh manuscript is preserved in the University of Edinburgh and one example in Jama al-Tawarikh manuscript is preserved in the Diz collection, a shield in the form of a teardrop (kite) with lion motifs, plant and eslimi motifs, has been observed.
Most of the depicted battle armors are full-length armors that cover the entire body in layers. But in the paintings of Demotte Shahnameh and Al-Athar Al-Bakiyah, the battle armors are half-length, layered, and made from cloth or leather. The armor of this period also shows the military position of the individuals. another war equipment worth mentioning from that period is the catapult, whose four forms are depicted in Jamia al-Tavarikh and during the siege of the city by Ilkhans.
The greatest abundance, diversity and changes in the form of war equipments of the Ilkhani period are shown in the pictures of Jame al-Tawarikh, Demotte Shahnameh, and there are similarities and differences in the form of each of the war equipment used among the manuscripts. This can be seen even in Jama al-Tawarikh manuscripts and even though all the manuscripts of Jama al-Tawarikh were done in Rab Rashidi and under the supervision of Rashid al-Din Fazlallah Hamdani, however, there are differences in the form on war equipment in Jama al-Tawarikh manuscripts.
The equipment depicted in the two manuscripts of Jamia al-Tawarikh preserved in the University of Edinburgh and the Khalili collection are drawn very similar in form. These similarities can be seen more in bow and arrow, archer, spear, armor and shield. Meanwhile, the manuscript of Jame al-Tawarikh preserved in the Topkapisera Museum is depicted in the form of some war equipments different from the other two manuscripts, and in this manuscript, maces in the hands of leaders and commanders with different forms are very noticeable.
In terms of form, the greatest similarity between war equipments in the paintings of the Ilkhani period can be seen in the form of bow bag, shield and layered armor, and the greatest difference can be seen in the form of mace and helmet. The motifs used on the war equipments of the Ilkhani period are mostly for decoration and are sometimes influenced by the art of China and Iran. These motifs can be seen in Jame al-Tawarikh with simple shapes, curved lines and sometimes animal motifs. The variety of motifs mentioned in Demotte Shahnameh is more and more delicately displayed, especially on the quiver.