Military Organization
Abdallah ibn Yassin imposed very strict disciplining measures on his forces for every breach of his laws. The Almoravids' first military leader, Yahya ibn Umar al-Lamtuni, gave them a good military organization. Their main force was infantry, armed with javelins in the front ranks and pikes behind, which formed into a phalanx; and was supported by camelmen and horsemen on the flanks. They also had a flag carrier at the front who guided the forces behind him; when the flag was upright the combatants behind would stand and when turned down, they would sit.
al-Bakri reports that, while in combat, the Almoravids did not pursue those who fled in front of them. Their fighting was tense and they did not retreat when disadvantaged by an advancing opposing force and preferred death over defeat. These characteristics were possibly unusual at the time.
Read more about this topic: Almoravid Dynasty
Famous quotes containing the words military and/or organization:
“Nothing changes my twenty-six years in the military. I continue to love it and everything it stands for and everything I was able to accomplish in it. To put up a wall against the military because of one regulation would be doing the same thing that the regulation does in terms of negating people.”
—Margarethe Cammermeyer (b. 1942)
“The art of government is the organization of idolatry. The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters. The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)