Судан и Большой Ближний Восток

268 III. Судан и его соседи pieces. 1 The late 14th and especially 15th C. Persian miniatures, however, uniformly represent armoured horses. B. Changes in the West Characteristically, the major changes in the system of Western knightly warfare occurred in the course of the same 13th C.: (1) A fully closed helmet ( Great Helm ) providing defence for the face was invented at the beginning of the century and became a common type of helmet by its end, (2) Different types of coat of plates ( brigandine ) were added to the defensive arms arsenal, and (3) A traditional mail hauberk was reinforced by plates, which was a first step towards creation of a full plate armour, (4) Horse armour (“barbed horses”), which appeared by the end of the 12th C., had been spreading out, and became a relatively common feature of the knightly equipment by the end of the 13th C. (though initially it was mostly 'soft armour', with metal chanfrons protecting a horse's forehead and face). Finally, as a response to all these revolutionary changes in the defensive arms, thoughwith a certaindelay, new types of swords emerged. From mid-13th C., the sword development in the West went into two major directions: 1. Improving a traditional cutting blade: creation of longer and heavier swords — such as a popular from the 2nd half of the 13th C. Epée de Guerre / Sword of War (types XIII/XIIIa after Oakeshott), later calledGreat Sword, able to break through a stronger defence. They had a heavy pommel for counter-balancing; some also had a longer hilt to strike with both hands when necessary – the so-called “hand-and-a- half” swords (type XIIIa). (A century later they would develop into the huge two-handed Great Swords, which became increasingly popular in the 15th–16th CC., when inventing of complete plate armour made shields unnecessary). In parallel, traditional slightly tapering swords 1 D. Ayalon. Notes on Furusiyya Exercises and Games in the Mamluk Sultanate // Scripta Hierosolymitana IX. Jerusalem, 1961. P. 48.