Lo scudo descritto nel trattato di al-Tarsūsī, fine XII secolo

The manuscript titled “Tabsirat arbāb al-albāb fī kayfiyyat an-najāt fi'l-hurūb min al-anwā’ wa nashr a'lām al-a'lām fi al-'udad wa al-‘alāt al-mu'īnah 'ala liqā' al-a'dā’” or “Information for essays on how to escape from combat and the dissemination of instructions on equipment and devices to help deal with enemies”, was written by Mardhī ibn Ali al-Tarsūsī (d. 1193) and is preserved at the Bodleian Library in Oxford (MS Huntington Collection, no. 264). The treatise dates from the late 12th century and was commissioned by Salāh ad-Dīn al-Ayyūbi in 1187. It is a compendium on the art of warfare that describes the methods of manufacture and use of weapons, armour and war machines used by Islamic armies during the Ayyūbid period. The details and manufacturing strategies of some weapons were presented with drawings, descriptions and engineering information. The manuscript is still almost unpublished, having been transcribed and translated only in part. The present contribution proposes the translation and analysis of an excerpt (fol. 112a to fol. 117b) mainly devoted to the description of shields, the different types of which are explored.