Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

265 Alexander S. Matveev. A Case of Survival of an Early Medieval Straight Sword... In a single combat, however, the straight sword was quite efficient. It allows a warrior to make the first deadly blow, then, if it did not succeed, as it just too often happened, he would continue fighting for a long time without being seriously in danger. Relatively weak follow-on strokes could be parried by a shield or a sword; a risk of swift unexpected stroke or thrust was also limited. In fact, it was a sort of tacit convention, which allowed the knights to keep fighting without any decisive, i.e. deadly, result. This perfectly corresponds to the knightly warfare system in general, where war was an important “leisure activity”, being rarely decisive — either local skirmishing, or a war of attrition rather than that of a decisive battle. Finally, all elements of the system suited each other; only some unexpected nasty arrow of some poorly equipped archer or crossbowman could spoil the knightly idyll... Unfortunately, it was exactly what happened in the 13th C. — despite all attempts of the knightly minded pious Popes to ban missile weapons. Though it may look as an exaggeration, this was, indeed, a period when the knight rarely was in real danger —both because of his effective protection in the hand-to-hand combat, and as he knew that in theworst case scenario, his successful opponent would take him prisoner — in order to get ransom, which was themajor prize in everlasting feuds. This confidence in his personal security is particularly obvious fromknightly complains when they had to face such “barbarians” as, e. g., Scotsmen who had a nasty habit to kill (sic!) the prisoners of war. Nevertheless, until some point it was merely an exception. Thus, a knightly sword completely fit its social (controlling the subjects) and military (feuds and tournaments) purposes. As for the fighting in closely packed formation in major battles, it was a spear and a large shield which were essential, not sword. B. Sword in Nomadic warfare The armies of the Great Steppe, on the contrary, were fast and numerous, and some type of closely packed formation emerged rather early, as despite of initial reliance on bow and arrows, the battle was often decided in ensuing hand-to-hand combat. As for the fighting in