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Description
Here's a picture I did of a caracal guardsman of the Umayyad Caliphate from 8th Century Spain!

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"These men are trained from youth to be strong, to fight, and to defend at all costs their lord and master."

The personal guard of the Umayyad caliphs, drawn from the ranks of the mamluk slave army and bolstered by foreign mercenaries, was known as the 'hasham'. Captured beyond the caliphate's eastern borders, beyond Transoxiana, the mamluks (or ghilman) were trained in captivity and freed on appointment to the guard. This was for two reasons; freed slaves owed a debt of duty to their former masters and those from outside the caliphate would be far less likely to intrigue or join an insurrection against it. Mamluk forces became the backbone of Islamic military power in the eastern empire, but the Cordoban caliphs of the west augmented their armies with Berbers and native Andalusians (a mix of native Iberian and Visigothic settlers). The proliferation of mamluk soldiers across the Umayyad Caliphate as peacekeepers contributed greatly to its later destabilization, as commanders were able to levy their loyal mamluks against both rivals and the central authorities alike.

Description
Here's a picture I did of a caracal guardsman of the Umayyad Caliphate from 8th Century Spain!

--

"These men are trained from youth to be strong, to fight, and to defend at all costs their lord and master."

The personal guard of the Umayyad caliphs, drawn from the ranks of the mamluk slave army and bolstered by foreign mercenaries, was known as the 'hasham'. Captured beyond the caliphate's eastern borders, beyond Transoxiana, the mamluks (or ghilman) were trained in captivity and freed on appointment to the guard. This was for two reasons; freed slaves owed a debt of duty to their former masters and those from outside the caliphate would be far less likely to intrigue or join an insurrection against it. Mamluk forces became the backbone of Islamic military power in the eastern empire, but the Cordoban caliphs of the west augmented their armies with Berbers and native Andalusians (a mix of native Iberian and Visigothic settlers). The proliferation of mamluk soldiers across the Umayyad Caliphate as peacekeepers contributed greatly to its later destabilization, as commanders were able to levy their loyal mamluks against both rivals and the central authorities alike.