There are few pieces of armor with such a long and adventurous life as the adarga. This simple leather shield arrived to the Iberian Peninsula from Western Sahara in the 13th century, where it would be adopted by the Christians and eventually by the Spanish nobility and royalty. Later, it would cross the ocean on his way to America where it met the the hands of Aztec artisans before reaching Canada by the end of the 18th century. A sensational trip crossing three continents and five centuries.
The Zenata
To tell the story of the adarga it is necessary first to tell that of those who brought the adarga from Africa to Spain: the Zenata (الزناتة).
This islamized group of Berber tribes crossed the strait of Gibraltar to become part of the armies of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada around 1260. They integrated into the Nasrid armies as Muyahidīn, ‘warriors of faith’ with the mission of guarding the frontier with the Christians and raiding their territories. These African militias were excellent horsemen and their light equipment was very different from that of the Nasrids and perfectly adapted to the type of raid and skirmish war of the frontier. They were usually armed with a slender spear, a sword and a leather shield, the ‘adarga’. Ibn al-Jatīb wrote how “just like the Granadines, few of them wear the Persian turban. Their favorite weapon is a spear armed with several blades that they throw against their foes with extraordinary skill.” [1]
The Zenata light cavalry and their new tactics deeply impacted their Christian enemies. Such was their influence that Christians would eventually adopt their horse riding techniques and two of their most distinctive weapons, the adarga and occasionally the sword, that would be called ‘gineta sword’ (zenata sword).
The earliest documented use of the word “ginete” to name a knight that rides ‘a la gineta’ appears in the Chronicle of king Alphonse X in the mid-14th century, when it explains that the Zenata first arrived to the Iberian Peninsula after the defeat of the Almohad caliph Muhámmad an-Násir (known among the Christians as ‘Miramamolin’) in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. The arrival of the Zenata and their new tactics would put an end to the uninterrupted Christian victories.
Riding ‘a la gineta’
Their horse riding technique was very different from that of the Christian Visigoths of the Peninsula. They rode agile and fast horses, using short stirrups with their knees bent. This type of horse riding became known among the Christians as “a la gineta”, in opposition to “a la brida”, the horse riding style of the Christian heavy cavalry, with stretched legs and log stirrups. We can clearly see the difference in one of the woodcarved chairs of the choir of the Toledo Cathedral representing the conquest of Marbella in 1485. King Fernando rides his horse with long stirrups while the Moor knight that follows him rides ‘a la gineta’ with short stirrups and bent knees.
This riding technique allowed the Zenetas to perform fast actions for which the Christians were not prepared, like the skirmish, the ‘tornafuye’ (feigned retreat) or the ‘algarada’. The ‘tornafuye’ consisted in attacking and then feigning retreat to provoke their enemy to chase them. When the Zenatas had reached a convenient terrain they would just stand up on their stirrups above their saddle and turn around to throw them their spears.
Until the end of the 13th century the word ‘ginete’ was exclusively used for the African Zenata cavalry, different from the “Andalusians”, the peninsular Moors. Progressively its use as and adjective, as in ‘caballeros ginetes’ (‘genet knights’), and would become a noun, ‘ginete’, used in modern-day Spanish, written ‘jinete’, for anyone who rides a horse, as ‘Rider’ or ‘Ritter’ (German).
In the early XIV century some Christians would imitate and learn how to ride ‘a la jineta’ but not as skillfully as the Maghrebi. The first Christians to ride ‘a la gineta’ were some young men of the court and those who lived in the Frontier, the dividing line between the Christian kingdom of Castile and the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, approximately on the northern border of the modern-day Spanish provinces of Almería, Granada, Málaga and Cádiz. In this mountainous terrain the Zenata’s ‘gineta’ was a much more efficient technique than the ‘brida’.
The Chronicle of king Alphonse XI talks about “young men of the king’s house who rode ‘a la gineta’, and some other from the frontier”. Consequently, the word “ginete” amplified its semantic field to include anyone, Moor or Christian, who rode or fought ‘a la gineta’.
In the mid 15th century, these Christian “ginetes” were already a part of the Castilian armies. That is the case of king Pedro I, who knew how to ride ‘a la gineta’ and had “two thousand and five hundred Castilian horsemen, and six hundred ‘ginetes’, meaning that he had 2,500 Castilian heavy cavalry knights who rode ‘a la brida’, and 600 light cavalry ‘ginetes’, possibly frontier men from Andalusia.
The influence of the gineta was much deeper in Castile than in the kingdom of Aragon, and it would gain such influence that in the early 15th a corps of ‘ginetes’ was formed for the protection of the king himself. In this period the word ‘gineta’ continues to be associated to the idea of light cavalry. A meaning that is unmistakably confirmed by the ‘Spanish-Latin Vocabulary’ of the Spanish humanist Antonio de Nebrija published in 1495, where ‘ginete’ is defined as ‘levis armature eques’ (a horseman in light armor).
In the 15th century Christians were fully skilled in the gineta and its practice had spread north, beyond the frontier territories. In 1497, during the Italian Wars (1494-1559), the Spanish general Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, ‘The Great Captain’, triumphantly entered Rome after his victory in the siege of Ostia. Domingo of Zaragoza, describes his entrance “dressed in short gold garments and riding a white horse ‘a la gineta’, and not in war armor that some regarded as more elegant”. [2]
It was precisely in the Italian wars when the light cavalry of the Spanish ginetes found the perfect scenario for displaying their advantage in a period in which artillery was relegating heavy cavalry to a less prominent role in in war. In Italy the Spanish light cavalry had its greatest victories against the French, who rode ‘a la estradiota’ (the Stratioti horse riding style), and the gineta spread rapidly in the Italic Peninsula where the Spanish horses were called ‘Ginetti’.
The Adargas
Nevertheless, Christians assimilated from the Zenata more than their riding technique and tactics. They also adopted some Andalusian arms as the ear-daggers, the ‘jineta’ or ‘gineta’ swords and, of course the adarga. The word ‘adarga’ comes from the Spanish-Arabic term ‘ad-darqa’ (الدرقة), an evolution of the Arabic word for ‘shield: ’ad-daraqah’ (الدرقة) (the German ‘Tartsche‘ also derives from ‘adarga’).
This type of shield was manufactured in the Maghreb and was made of two or three layers of leather, glued and sewed without any wooden frame or structure. Cow-hide was commonly used, but also leather of onager or the very prized antelope leather. It is believed that its original shape was rounded and that it evolved to a heart shape and later a bivalved shape. The main production center of adargas in the Maghreb could have been Fez according to this excerpt from the ‘History of the Factions of Abencerrajes and Zegríes, Moor Knights of Granada’ written by Ginés Pérez de Hita (c 1544 – c 1619):
“When he arrived home, he ordered the grey colt that his cousin, the Governor of the Velez, had sent to him, to be saddled up, and asked for a fine adarga made in Fez and a strong chain mail”.
However, the first depictions of adargas can be found in the illuminations of the Cantigas of Alphonse X ’The Wise’, of 1281-1284. Among the Moor cavalry we can identify two type of warriors. Some of them use almost identical equipment as the Christians: they use a war hat, chain mail and the same type of shield. In the other hand, some of them are only protected with adargas and those who don’t use a turban have distinct African features. The first group is possibly a depiction of the Spanish-Muslim warriors, mimicking their enemies after centuries of wars and coexistence. The second group would represent the Berber militias. The Nasrid army, the cavalry in particular, eventually adopted the adargas of the Zenata, and Cordoba became one of the production centers in Al-Andalus.
Typologies and Decoration
The shape of the adarga evolved during these centuries. In the 13th century they were heart-shaped like those depicted in the Cantigas. Soler del Campo (1993) points out that some of these adargas have a slight depression in their inferior end, which seems to anticipate the bivalved adarga. The adargas depicted in ‘The Great Conquest Overseas’ (1291-1295), which narrates the First Crusade, are heart-shaped too.
In the 14th century the shape of the adarga becomes fully bivalved, a shape that will become more stylized until becoming almost elliptical, like that of the adargas shown in the mural paintings of the Hall of Kings of the Alhambra and in other depictions related to the War of Granada.
1) Cantigas of Alfonso X ‘The Wise’ (1281-1284). 2) Cantigas of Alfonso X ‘The Wise’ (1281-1284). 3) ‘The Great Conquest Overseas’ (1291-1295). 4) Wall paintings of the Hall of the Kings in the Alhambra (c 1400). 5) ‘Ecce homo’ by Nicolás Francés, Cathedral of Leon (c 1434). 6) Altar Piece of de Saint Stephen of Granollers by Pau Vergós (c 1490). 7) ‘Saint Vincent and Saint Valerius in prison’, anonymous (1490-1500). 8) Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien inv. C 195 (c 1492). 9) Real Armería de Madrid, D86 (c 1492). 10) ‘The Resurrection of Christ’ by Juan de Flandes (1508).
In the inner side there were two straps to grab it with the hand instead of inserting the arm through the stripes. As it is customary in Islamic arts, the decoration of the adargas was mainly on the inner side for the enjoyment of its owner, and was commonly composed of rich and intricate vegetal and epigraphic motifs, like those in the very few surviving specimens from the Nasrid period, like the adarga of the Real Armería of Madrid (D.86) and the one in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna (C.195), both possibly war trophies from the War of Granada.
Most depictions only show the exterior side of the shield, almost always plain (the leather in colors from white to brown or red) and with the only ornament of two to four metal bosses with decorative tassels attached, which also covered the ends of the straps.
Nevertheless, we can sometimes find depictions of adargas ornamented with symbols or figurative motifs. In the mural paintings of the Castle of Alcañiz, that belonged to the Military Order of Calatrava, dating from the second quarter of the 13th century, we can find a representation of a battle between the Knights of Calatrava and Muslims warriors armed with adargas. Some of these adargas have symbols that seem coherent with the Islamic iconography, such as characters resembling the word “Allah” in Arabic characters, the Solomon’s Seal (an eight-pointed star that appears also in the adargas of the Cantigas) or a hand which resembles the Hamsa or Hand of Fatima, a talismanic symbol for protection, which seems appropriate for a shield.
However, most depictions of adargas, are found in works of religious character, like scenes of the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Christ, where the soldiers guarding the cross or asleep at Christ’s tomb hold adargas. They are often armed with weapons perceived ad ‘Moorish’ such as falchions or ear-daggers. These adargas should not be taken as faithful representations, but as way s to make perfectly clear that they are not Christians, and the symbols painted on these adargas are a way of labeling those who bear it as ‘enemies of the faith’ or ‘enemies of God’.
For example, in the Altarpiece of Saint George (Victoria And Albert Museum, 1217-1864), one adarga is decorated with the figure of a tortoise and another one with a scorpion. The scorpion silhouette, usually black on a yellow background, was a rather common expression of anti-judaism or anti-islamism in the paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries.
That is the case of the Tapestries of Pastrana, that depict the conquest of Arcila and Tangier by Alphonse V of Portugal, and in particular the tapestry representing the disembarkation in Arcila, in which two yellow banners with the scorpion can be seen waving above the buildings of the Moorish city. Both in Spanish and Italian art of this period is very common to find depictions of these ‘enemies of faith’ with banners or flags with two-headed eagles, the scorpion or the Solomon’s Seal. [3]
Just like with the ride ‘a la gineta’, during the 14th century the adarga had been adopted by the Christians. An ordinance of Zaragoza from 1409, forbade bringing inside the city defensive weapons like chain mail, bascinets, armor, shields, bucklers and adargas [4], which proves that the use of the adarga was already very extended. Christian horsemen and infantry kept using adargas during the 15th century, as we can see in the Tapestries of Pastrana where many Christian soldiers wear adargas. The adarga was easy to manufacture, cheaper than other types of shields, flexible and light.
Nevertheless, Christian adapted adargas, mainly by changing the straps so that they could brace the shield in the same way as conventional and heavier shields. We can find many examples in paintings that show the inside with larger and more separated straps or the outer side of the shield tightly held with the arm.
Despite becoming a popular arm, with the end of the War of Granada and the more frequent use of firearms and artillery, the protection provided by the adarga was not sufficient anymore. But the adarga was far from being doomed by gunpowder, and during the next three centuries it would begin a surprising second life.
© S. Feo García
[1] TORRES DELGADO, Cristóbal (1973). Formación del ejército nazarí, in Cuadernos de estudios medievales y ciencias y técnicas historiográficas, ISSN 1132-7553, Nº. 1, 1973, págs. 3-8.
[2] FERNÁNDEZ DE CÓRDOVA MIRALLES, Álvaro (2015). El “Rey Católico” de las primeras guerras de Italia. Imagen de Fernando II de Aragón y V de Castilla entre la expectación profética y la tensión internacional (1493-1499), Medievalismo: Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Estudios Medievales, ISSN 1131-8155, Nº 25, 2015, págs. 197-232.
[3] We can find the scorpion banner in the mural paintings of the Church of San Fiorenzo (Bastia Mondovì), in several representations of the crucifixion by Giovanni Boccati (1410-1480c) (in the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (Urbino), in Ca’ d’Oro, Venice, and in the Predella of the Madonna of the Pergola, in the National Gallery of Umbria in Perugia), in the Crucifixion (1501) by Michele da Verona (Pinacoteca di Brera), and in the illumination of Cristoforo de Predis (S.P. 42) in the Book of Hours ‘Borromeo’ (Ambrosian Library), just to name a few. For more information: CAPRIOTTI, Giuseppe (2015). Lo scorpione sul petto. Iconografia antiebraica tra XV e XVI secolo alla periferia dello stato pontificio. Gangemi Editore.
[4] CANTOS CARNICER, A. (2017). El armamento y sus innovaciones en el Aragón de la segunda mitad del siglo XIV, Revista Universitaria de Historia Militar, Volumen 6, número 11 Año 2017, pp. 109-135.
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