ABSTRACT
It is generally accepted fact that the soldiers of the medieval Middle East, be they Byzantines or Muslims, were supported by far more effective medical services than were the invading Western European Crusaders. It also reflected a medical heritage built upon the Ancient Greeks, to which the medical knowledge of Persia, India and even China had been added. Yet few detailed studies have been made of this aspect of military history. Long before the illiterate armies of medieval European wrote or read military training manuals, Arab, Persian and Turkish soldiers had a highly developed tradition of Furusiyah "military horsemanship" and the associated books that were read by junior officers as well as by military leaders. From the 11th century, images of war in medieval Western European art tended to be dominated by the chivalric ideals of the knightly aristocracy.
