1 Hacker, B.C., “Women and Military Institutions in Early Modern Europe: A Reconnaissance,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 6 (1981): 643–71; Wilson, P. H., “German Women and War 1500–1800,” War in History 3 (1996): 127–60; Dekker, R. M. and van der Pol, L. C., “Republican Heroines: Cross-Dressing Women in the French Revolutionary Armies,” History of European Ideas 10 (1989): 353–63; Wheelwright, J., Amazons and Military Maids: Women Who Dressed as Men in the Pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness (London, 1989). An early version of this article was read as a paper at the Fifth International Congress of Women's Studies in José, San, Costa Rica in 1992, and an unannotated, abbreviated Hebrew translation was published in Zmanim 62 (1998): 60–71.Google Scholar

2 Gabrieli, F., Arab Historians of the Crusades , 2^d ed., trans. Costello, E. J. (London, [1963] 1969), 207. The grave of a Viking woman excavated on the Isle of Man contained a man's cloak as well as weapons. She may therefore have cross-dressed. See Fell, C., Women in Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1984), 130–31.Google Scholar

3 Primera Crónica General de España que mando componer Alfonso el Sabio y se continuaba bajo Sancho IV en 1289 , ed. Pidal, Ramon Menéndez, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1955), vol 2. On the evolution, structure, and dating of the PCG , see Catalán, Diego, La Estoria de España de Alfonso X, Creación y Evolución, Fuentes Cronísticas de la Historia de España, 5 (Madrid, 1992). He believes that in its present form it may date to the mid-fourteenth century. On the sources for the chapters on the Cid, see especially ibid., 44–53, 108–19. Catalán's “Crónicas Generales y Cantares de Gesta: El Mío Cid de Alfonso X y el del Pseudo Ben-Alfaraý,” Hispanic Review 31 (1963): 195–215, 291–306 is reprinted in La Estoria, 93–119. See also Pattison, D. G., From Legend to Chronicle: The Treatment of Epic Material in Alphonsine Historiography, Medium Aevum Monographs, New Series 13 (Oxford, 1983) and Nykl, A. R., “La Elegia Árabe de Valencia,” Hispanic Review 8 (1940): 9–17.Google Scholar

4 The most recent study of the career of the Cid is Fletcher's, R. The Quest for the Cid (London, 1989); for the siege of Valencia and the victory at Quart, see ibid., 143–86. For the Almoravids see the new edition of the Encylopedia of Islam (Leiden, 1999) s.v. al-Murabitun (article by H. Norris), which has an up-to-date bibliography.Google Scholar

5 Pidal, Menéndez, PCG vol. 2, cap. 955, 636, a43–b14 (my emphases).Google Scholar

6 PCG vol. 2, cap. 956, 637, b19–43 (my emphases). I have followed the translation in Harvey, L. P., “Nugeymath Turquía: Primera Crónica General, chapter 956,” Journal of Semitic Studies 13 (1968): 233–35, except for the phrase “ovierongelo a entender” (PCG cap. 637, b35). This phrase is problematic, but Harvey's translation of it as “this they recognized” is unsatisfactory. In modern Castilian and Catalan “have” (haber or haver) in the sense of “have to” or “must,” takes the preposition “de,” but in old Catalan “haver” took the preposition “a” as well: see Alcover, A., Diccionari Catalá-Valenciá-Balear, 10 vols. (Palma de Mallorca, 1980), s.v. haver [ant.= aver], II, 2). Old Catalan therefore had a construction identical to “avoir à,” found in both medieval and modern French. Although this construction seems never to have taken root in Castilian and is not noted by lexicographers, its presence in the text of the PCG cannot be ignored, especially as the sense of compulsion or obligation is required by the context. The translation must be: “They were made to realize this,” or: “They ought to have realized this.” The Almoravids are the subject of the sentence, and what they were obliged to realize was that women are congenital cowards.Google Scholar

7 Fletcher, , Quest , 186.Google Scholar

8 Harvey, (n. 6 above), 237–40. Harvey's rhetorical question is at 237.Google Scholar

9 Norris, H. T., The Adventures of Antar , Approaches to Arabic Literature, 3 (Warminster, Wilts., 1980), 241.Google Scholar

10 Pattison, , From Legend to Chronicle (n. 3 above), 139 n. 74.Google Scholar

11 PCG , vol 2, cap. 896, 566, a45–b3.Google Scholar

12 Marçais, Georges, La Berberie Musulmane et l'Orient au Moyen Âge (Paris, 1946), 244; Norris, H. T., Saharan Myth and Saga (Oxford, 1972), 41, 43; Keenan, J. H., The Tuareg (London, 1977), chap. 8; Lhote, H., Les Touaregs du Hoggar (Paris, [1944] 1984), 180–81.Google Scholar

13 Lévi-Provençal, E., Séville Musulmane au Debut du xii^e Siècle: Le Traité d'Ibn 'Abdun sur la Vie Urbaine et les Corps des Metiers (Paris, 1947), 61, §56.Google Scholar

14 Most books on the Tuareg contain good photographs; but see especially the photographs by Roger Balsom in Kenneth, and Slavin, Julie, The Tuareg (London, 1973), chap. 8; Béraud-Villars, J., Les Touareg au Pays du Cid: Les Invasions Almoravides en Espagne aux xi^e et xii^e Siècles (Paris, 1946) reproduces (on its cover) the veiled Berber warrior riding across the Sahara, seen in the Catalan atlas of 1375.Google Scholar

15 Barbour, N., “La Guerra Psicológica de los Almohades contra los Almoravides,” Boletin de la Asociación Española de Orientalistas 2 (1966): 119.Google Scholar

16 Harvey, , “Nugeymath Turquia,” 239, n.2.Google Scholar

17 Keenan, , The Tuareg, plates 9, 20; Lord Francis Rennell of Rodd, People of the Veil, Being an Account of the Habits, Organisation and History of the Wandering Tuareg Tribes Which Inhabit the Mountains of Air … in the Central Sahara (London, 1926; repr. Oosterhout, The Netherlands, 1970), 177; Slavin, Tuareg, photos facing 28, 55.Google Scholar

18 Slavin, , Tuareg , 24; Casajus, D., La Tente dans la Solitude: La Société et les Morts chez les Touaregs Kel Ferwan (Cambridge and Paris, 1981), 319. See also references in n. 12 above. For a rare example of the litham covering the entire skull, even at the back, see the photograph in Slavin (opposite p. 32), and for a striking contrast between a black-veiled, noble Targui and his bareheaded, shock-haired slave, see Norris, H. T., The Arab Conquest of the Western Sahara (Harlow, Essex, 1986), plate 3.Google Scholar

19 Lhote, Les Touregs , 146 is a magnificent photograph of the elaborate braids (encircled by the litham), seen in closeup from behind.Google Scholar

20 Lhote, , Les Touregs , 232; idem, “L'Arc au Sahara” in Encyclopedie Berbère (Aix-en-Provence, [1984–] 1988), s. v. armes. See also Brunschvig, R., La Berberie Orientale sous les Hafsides des Origines à la fin du xv^e siècle, 2 vols. (Paris, 1940–47), 2, 84–85, where the refusal of the Berbers to use the bow is implied rather then stated.Google Scholar

21 Chronica Adefonsi Imperatoris , ed. Maya Sánchez, A. in Chronica Hispana Saeculi xii , pars 1, CCM 71 (Turnholt, 1990): 220. It is also worth noting the assumption that the Trojans would be especially shamed were they to be beaten by Camilla and her maidens, in the late-twelfth-century German version of The Aeneid, by Heinrich von Vedecke. See Westphal, S., “Camilla: The Amazon Body in Medieval German Literature,” Exemplaria 8 (1996): 248.Google Scholar

22 Pius II, Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope: The Commentaries of Pius II , ed. Gabel, L. (London, 1960), 207.Google Scholar

23 See especially Pidal, Menéndez, España del Cid , 7^th ed., 2 vols. (Madrid, [1929] 1969).Google Scholar

24 Romancero General , ed. Durán, Agustin, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles (Madrid, 1945), tomo 10, 1, no. 901, 570; Historia y Romancero del Cid , Rodríguez-Moñino, A., ed. (Lisbon, 1605; repr. Madrid, 1973), 222; de Sepúlveda, Lorenzo, Romances Nuevamente Sacados de Historias Antiguas de la Crónica de España, facsimile ed. (New York, [1551] 1903), fol. 168v. The earliest known version of this ballad is Sepúlveda's. He claimed to have extracted his ballads from the chronicle “a la letra!” (ibid fol. 2v). The real Álvar Fáñez, who had almost as distinguished a military career as the Cid, was not in fact with the latter at Valencia. For the most recent discussion of the linking of the two contemporaries' careers, see Pavlovic, M. N. and Walker, R. M., “‘Asil creçe la ondra a Mio Çid el Campeador’: The role of Minaya Álvar Fáñez in the Poema de mio Cid,” in Al que en Buen Hora Naçio: Essays on the Spanish Epic in Honour of Colin Smith , ed. Powell, B., Severin, D., and West, G., Hispanic Studies Textual Research and Criticism, 12 (Liverpool, 1996), 115–28, esp. 118–19.Google Scholar

25 Merwin, W. S., Poem of the Cid, texto español de Ramon Menéndez Pidal, English verse trans. by Merwin, William S. (New York, [1959] 1962), xxvii–xxviii (my emphases).Google Scholar

26 The Crónica de Veinte Reyes, which belongs to the thirteenth century and predates the final redaction of the PCG, fails to describe the Christian retreat from Valencia at all. See Powell, Brian, Epic and Chronicle: “The Poema de Mio Cid” and the “Crönica de Veinte Reyes,” Texts and Dissertations: Modern Humanities Research, 18 (London, 1983), 155.Google Scholar

27 Hatto, A. J., “Archery and Chivalry: A Noble Prejudice,” Modern Language Review 35 (1940): 40–54; Bradbury, Jim, The Medieval Archer (London, 1985), 1 ff. Google Scholar

28 For the Historia Roderici , see Pidal, Menéndez, España del Cid (n. 23 above), 2: 921–71; Fletcher, , Quest, 93–96. The authorship and date of the Poema have been the subject of much debate and the bibliography is considerable. Menéndez Pidal insisted on pushing the date back to 1140, but his views have not won general acceptance. See Smith, Colin, El Cid Campeador: Poema de Mio Cid (Oxford, 1972), xxxi-xxxiv; idem, La Creación del Poema de Mio Cid, Series Filologia, 16 (Barcelona, 1985).Google Scholar

29 The Voiage and Travayle of Syr John Maundeville Knight (London, [1568, 1887] 1928), chap. 50, 138; see also Letts, Malcolm, Sir John Mandeville: The Man and His Book (London, 1949), 55. Letts states that “practically all” that Mandeville relates about the Amazons is to be found in the forged letter of Prester John, ibid., 54. This letter, forged in the twelfth century, underwent many interpolations. The passage, which included a description of the Amazons, was added to the text between 1177 and 1221, see Slessarov, V., Prester John: The Letter and the Legend (Minneapolis, 1959), 34, 62. However, a French translation of the “femenie” section in this passage, dating from the mid-thirteenth century, makes no distinction between the arms of commoner and noble Amazon. Moreover, the weapons they use are not specified; see Jubinal, Achille, ed., Oeuvres Completes de Ruteboef, Trouvère du xiii^e Siècle, 2^d ed., 3 vols. (Paris, 1874–75), 3: 361. This holds true for the later French version, written during the fifteenth century, Slessarov, Prester John, 70, 116, n. 6. It would seem, therefore, that this detail was a late addition, possibly by “Sir John Mandeville” himself. See also the discussion of Mandeville's use of the letter in Zarncke, F., “Der Prester Johannes” in Abhandlungen der philologisch-historischen Classe der königlich sächsischen Gesellschaft des Wissenschaften, 8 (Leipzig, 1883), 128–54, 180–84, especially at 133. But whether it was Mandeville or a near contemporary of his who was responsible for the addition, it clearly shows that archers were held in contempt as warriors among the upper classes of western Europe in the later Middle Ages.Google Scholar

30 de Pizan, Christine, The Book of the City of Ladies , trans. Richards, E. J. (New York, 1982), 41.Google Scholar

31 Bradbury, , Medieval Archer , 12.Google Scholar

32 Yehuda, Netivah Ben, 1948 — Between Calendars [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1981), 121, 278, 280, 318–19. The only kernel of truth in the story was that, on the march back to base, “Mirka Shechter” had raised the academic question of what one would do if one suddenly heard a baby crying inside a building one was about to blow up. To Ben Yehuda's query why she did not refute the story that had been spread about her, “Shechter” answered; “When I'm asked about it, I simply don't reply. What am I supposed to say —Yes, I like killing babies? … as if men do!” (319). BenYehuda insists on calling her book a novel (presumably to avoid actions for libel). It is, however, a detailed memoir of the period and, despite their pseudonyms, all the “characters” are recognizable to those who knew them.Google Scholar

33 PCG , I, cap. 559, 312 b1–3: “las caras dellos negras como la pez, el mas fremoso dellos negro como la olla.” Google Scholar

34 Barkai, Ron, Cristianos y Musulmanes en la España Medieval: el Enemigo en el Espejo (Madrid, 1984), 236, 242.Google Scholar

35 Escobar himself may have “corrected” the ballad in 1609. In 1551 the relevant line ran: “una mora negra muy gallarda,” see Sepülveda, (n. 24 above) fol. 168v. The “corrected” version is also in Durán, Romancero (n. 24 above), no. 901, 570.Google Scholar

36 Lévi-Provençal, Evariste, “La Toma de Valencia por el Cid según las Fuentes Musulmanes y el Original Árabe de la Crónica General de España,” trans. García Góméz, E., in Al-Andalus 13 (1948): 116–17 (Arabic), 136 (trans); idem, “La prise de Valence par le Cid,” in his Islam d'Occident (Paris, 1948), 210 (the French version does not include the texts in Arabic). The Sanhudja Berbers (of whom the Almoravids were a part) were regarded as fellow whites (bidan) by Muslims, Andalusi, Peres, H., La Poésie andalouse en arabe classique au x^ième siècle: ses aspects généraux, ses principaux thèmes et sa valeur documentaire, 2d ed. (Paris, 1953), 352. The Arabic name given to sub-Saharan Africa — bilad as-Sudan — meant “the land of the blacks.” In Tamahaq, the language of the Tuareg, “black” (ikli, pl. iklan) is a generic term for “slave.” For the contempt felt by Arabs and Berbers for the sudan , see John, S. Trimingham, A History of Islam in West Africa (Oxford, 1959), 31 and appendix 3; Al-Azmeh, , “Barbarians in Arab Eyes,” Past and Present 134 (1992): 8–9, 11, 13–14. See also Lewis, Bernard, Race and Colour in Islam (New York, 1971), passim; cf. Lévi-Provençal, E., Histoire de l'Espagne Musulmane, 3 vols. (Paris, 1950; repr. 1967) 3: 178. Even in modern Berber society, “to respond to the insults of a negro … or to fight with him was to dishonour oneself,” Bourdieu, Pierre, “The Sentiment of Honour in Kabyle Society,” in Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society , ed. Peristiany, J. (Chicago, [ca.1966] 1974), 200.Google Scholar

37 Pieter, Reinhart Dozy, Anne, Recherches sur l'Histoire et la Littérature de l'Espagne pendant le Moyen Âge , 3^d ed., 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1965 reprint) 2: 33–54; Pidal, Menéndez, España del Cid (n. 23 above), 2: 896–901; Lévi-Provençal, , “La Toma” (n. 36 above), 101.Google Scholar

38 For a translation of the Historia Roderici's account see Fletcher, , Quest (n. 4 above), 172–73.Google Scholar

39 See lines 1618–1792, 2344–47, 2383–91, 2505–26.Google Scholar

40 PCG , I, clxxxviii.Google Scholar

41 Lévi-Provençal, , “La Toma” (n. 36 above), 117–18 (Arabic text), 137–38 (translation); 'Idhari, Ibn, Al Bayan al-Mugrib, Textos Medievales, 8 (Valencia, 1963), 95 seq. Google Scholar

42 Lévi-Provençal, , “La Toma” (n. 36 above), 125–26 (Arabic text), 147 (translation).Google Scholar

43 Fletcher, Thus, Quest (n. 4 above) 173: “Ibn 'Alkama furnishes us with a little more detail (than the Historia Roderici) about the battle.” Fletcher alludes only to the second version of the victory found in Ibn 'Idhari. The classic feint known as torna fuye was a common tactic in Spain and one the Christians had learned from the Muslims; see Lourie, E., “A Society Organised for War: Medieval Spain,” Past and Present 35 (1966), repr. in eadem, , Crusade and Colonisation: Muslims Christians and Jews in Medieval Aragon (Aldershot, 1990), 1: 69. However, what is relevant here is the self-image of either side — not the facts.Google Scholar

44 Dozy, (n. 37 above), 2: 20. Southey's translation did not solve the ethical problem by making the women flee “from their tents to the camp,” Southey, R., Chronicle of the Cid, Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, The Campeador (London, 1883), 441.Google Scholar

45 Even if Ibn 'Idhari in fact used some other source, besides Ibn 'Alkama, for his first version of the battle of Quart, a possibility briefly considered by Lévi-Provençal in “La Toma” (n. 36 above), 104–5, the third version shares so many structural characteristics with both versions in Ibn 'Idhari, that there can be little doubt about the very close links between all three.Google Scholar

46 Lévi-Provençal, , “La Toma” (n. 36 above), 108; idem “La prise” (n. 36 above), 200.Google Scholar

47 PCG , cap. 952, 633 b26–44.Google Scholar

48 PCG , cap. 956, 637 b42–638 a4.Google Scholar

49 Catalán, D., La Estoria de España de Alfonso X, Creación y Evolución , Fuentes Cronísticas de la Historia de España, 5 (Madrid, 1992), 47–59, 99–107.Google Scholar

50 Smith, Margaret, Rabi'a the Mystic and Fellow-Saints in Islam (Cambridge, 1928), 138–39; eadem, Rabi'a: The Life and Work of Rabi'ah and Other Women Mystics in Islam (Oxford, 1994), 168–69; El-Saadawi, Nawal, “Woman and Islam” in “Women and Islam,” special issue of Women's Studies International Forum , ed. Al-Hibri, A., 5: 2 (1982): 197; Al-Hibri, Azizah, “A Study of Islamic Herstory; or How Did We Ever Get into This Mess?” ibid., 209, 211; Usama ibn Munqidh, amir of Shaizar, Memoirs of an Arab-Syrian Gentleman, or an Arab Knight in the Crusades (originally published as An Arab-Syrian Gentleman and Warrior in the Period of the Crusades), trans. Hitti, Philip K., Khayats Oriental Reprints, 7 (Beirut [1927] 1964), 153–54.Google Scholar

51 Every book on the Tuareg mentions their matrilineality. The freedom of Tuareg women included sexual freedom, as indicated in the important custom known as the ahal, in which adolescents and young adults engaged in sexual play prior to marriage, and after marriage, a woman could leave her husband freely; see Rennell, (n. 17 above), 24, 29, 173–76; Slavin (n. 14 above), 182–83, 187–89; Lhote (n. 12 above), 56, 182, 201; Keenan (n. 12 above), 107, 299, 351, n. 19; Casserly, G., Algeria Today (London, 1923), 236–40. Ibn Tashfin's wife, Zaynab, played a major political role in the founding of the Almoravid empire, although most historians play down her importance. Levtzion is exceptional in stating that she changed the course of Almoravid history. But he describes her decision to divorce one Almoravid leader and marry another, dictating policy to both, in terms of her personal traits, in particular her inordinate “lust for power,” while failing to explain how the norms of her society enabled her to indulge such a lust so overtly; see Levtzion, N., “Abdallah b. Yasin and the Almoravids” in Lewis, I. M., Islam in Tropical Africa, 2^d ed. (Oxford, [1966] 1980), 97, 98. Mernissi, F. mentions Zaynab only in passing; see her Forgotten Queens of Islam (1990), trans. Lakeland, M. J. (Cambridge, 1993), 14. Zaynab's career and its representations deserve extended treatment.Google Scholar

52 Rennell, (n. 17 above), 174.Google Scholar

53 Battutah, Ibn, Ibn Battuta in Black Africa , ed. and trans. Hamdun, S. and King, N. (London, 1975), 28; Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History , trans. Hopkins, J. F. P.; edited and annotated by Levtzion, N. and Hopkins, J. F. P., Series Fontes Historiae Africanae: Series Arabica, 4 (Cambridge, ca. 1981), 301.Google Scholar

54 For Koçeila and Kahena, see Gautier, E. F., Les siècles obscurs du Maghreb: L'Islamissation de l'Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1927), 421–25; idem, Le Passé de l'Afrique du Nord (Paris, 1937), 267–79; for Bikoum-Kabi, see Lhote, (n. 12 above), 38; for Barkashko, see Rennell, (n. 17 above), 169–70. The authors of the Anglo-Saxon chronicle seem to have accepted the generalship of Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, with equanimity; but by the twelfth century her military action was regarded as most “unwomanly.” See Bandel, Betty, “The English Chroniclers' Attitude toward Women,” Journal of the History of Ideas 66 (1955): 113–18.Google Scholar

55 Italicus, Silius, Catius, Tiberius, Punica , 2 vols., trans. Duff, J. D., Loeb Classical Library (London, 1933), 2, lines 56 seq., 63–68. Norris, H. T., The Tuaregs: Their Islamic Legacy and its Diffusion in the Sahel (Warminster, Wilts., 1975), 15–16. On the links between the Sanhadja Berbers (who included the Almoravid tribes) and the ancient Libyan peoples see Norris, Saharan Myth (n. 12 above), 229.Google Scholar

56 For Camilla's squadrons, see Aeneid, 7, line 804; 11, lines 868–69; for the four women with Camilla, see 11, lines 655–58, 820–23; for her quiver, see 7, line 816 and 11, line 649; for her breast bared for the fray, see 11, line 648 and compare 7, lines 814–15: “the glory of royal purple drapes her smooth shoulders,” before the battle begins. For Asbyte's bare breast, see Punica, 2, lines 78–79; for “her native dress,” see ibid, line 77. For Tuareg female dress which leaves one breast bare, see Lhote, (n. 12 above), 156–57.Google Scholar

57 Faure, Paul, “Les Amazones, ont-elles vraiement existées?” L'Histoire 139 (1990): 18–23; I owe this reference to Professor Lucien Posnanski. See also Taylor, Timothy, “Thracians, Scythians and Dacians 800 b.c.–a.d. 300,” in Cunliffe, B., ed., The Oxford Illustrated Prehistory of Europe (Oxford, 1994), 395–96; Davis-Kimball, Jeannine, “Warrior Women of the Eurasian Steppes,” Archaeology 50 (1997): 44–48. I owe this reference to Dr. Yulia Ustinova. In Europe an early-eleventh-century report of a married woman who “rode to war like a knight,” referred, not surprisingly, to the wife of a Magyar horseman; for the Hungarians had only recently converted both to Christianity and to sedentarism; see Stock, B., The Implications of Literacy, Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the 11^th and 12^th Centuries (Princeton, 1983), 499–500. For a discussion of the female-warrior motif in Arabic popular literature, see Kruk, Remke, “Warrior Women in Arabic Popular Romance: Qannasa bint Muzahim and Other Valiant Ladies,” Journal of Arabic Literature 24 (1993): 213–29; 25 (1994): 16–33; idem, “Clipped Wings: Medieval Arabic Adaptations of the Amazon Myth,” Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review 1 (1994): 132–51. Helen Solterer has suggested that the thirteenth-century Tournoiement as Dames, a “male fantasy” involving an entire group of females, “accommodates the desire to imagine (contemporary) women at war.” See her “Figures of Female Militancy in Medieval France,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 16 (1991): 543. Yet, significantly, the author was only able to imagine the women fighting each other, rather than fighting against men, or alongside them.Google Scholar

58 Noth, H., Woman in Ancient Africa, trans. Marnie, S. (Westport, Conn., 1987), 61, 62; Samuel, P., Amazones, guerrières et gaillardes (Brussels, 1975), 229–30, 232, 234.Google Scholar

59 Silius Italicus says that some of the women under Asbyte's command were married, but most were not, see Punica , 2: 83–84. Colonel Qaddafi's use of female bodyguards (who have frequently been photographed) is a conscious “quotation” from ancient Libyan history.Google Scholar

60 Conrad, D. and Fisher, H., “The Conquest That Never Was: Ghana and the Almoravids 1076,” History in Africa 9 (1982): 21–59; 10 (1983): 53–57. Clarke, P. B., West Africa and Islam (London, 1982), 34, 42–43; Hiskett, M., The Development of Islam in West Africa (London, [1984] 1986), 22–23; Al-Hulal al Mawshiyya, Crónica Arabe de las Dinastias Almoravides, Almohades y Benimerin , ed. Huici Miranda, A., Colección de Crónicas Árabes de la Reconquista, 1 (Tetuán, 1952), 37.Google Scholar

61 Fletcher, , Quest (n. 4 above), 164; Lévi-Provençal, “La Toma” (n. 36 above), 136, 147.Google Scholar

62 Pigafetta, Filippo and Lopez, Duarte, A Report of the Kingdom of Congo and the Surrounding Countries, Drawn out of the Writings … of Duartte Lopez by Filippo Pigafetta [1591] , trans. Hutchinson, Margarite (New York, 1881; repr. 1969), 118–19; Noth (n. 58 above), 35, 58–59, 62–64; Lebeuf, A. M. D., “The Role of Women in the Political Organization of African Societies,” in Paulme, Denise, ed., Women of Tropical Africa , trans. Wright, H. M. (Berkeley, 1963), 94–96; Clarke, J. H., “African Warrior Queens,” in Black Women in Antiquity , ed. van Sertima, I. (New Brunswick 1988), repr. from Journal of African Civilizations 6 (1984): 123–34; Ritter, E. A., Shaka Zulu (London, [1955] 1958, repr. 1963), 104, 145–47, 283, 288. Ritter's disparaging tone can be discounted. It is noteworthy that the Amazons in North Africa are described as black by Diodorus Siculus, De Bello Punico, 2: 45–46; 3: 51–54, and that although the warrior heroine of the Arabic romance Sirat al-Amira Dhat al-Himma is an Arab, her son, who fights by her side, is black; see Encylopedia of Islam, 2^d edition, s.v Dhu-l Himma. For a translation of a story in which both she and her son fight against another warrior woman, see Kruk, R., “Warrior Women” (see n. 57 above), 17–33.Google Scholar

63 Cornevin, R., Histoire du Dahomey (Paris, 1962), opp. 225; Newark, Tim, Women Warlords: An Illustrated History of Female Warriors (London, 1989), 42, 46.Google Scholar

64 Forbes, Frederick E., Dahomey and The Dahomeans, Being the Journals of Two Missions To The King of Dahomey … in the Years 1847 and 1850 (London, 1851; new impr., 1966), 55–56, 61–62, 89–90, 105; Sir Richard Burton, A Mission to Glele King of Dahomey, ed. and annotated by Newbury, C. W. (New York, [1864] 1966), 35, 155, 162, 260–64; Skertchly, J. A., Dahomey as It Is; Being a Narrative of Eight Months Residence in That Country, With a Full Account of the Notorious Annual Customs and the Social and Religious Institutions of the Ffons (London, 1874), 454–55; d'Almeida Topor, Hélène, “Les Amazones du Dahomey,” L'Histoire 109 (1988): 20–27; I owe this reference to Professor Lucien Posnanski. See also Alpern, S. B., Amazons of Black Sparta: The Women Warriors of Dahomey (London, 1998).Google Scholar

65 For the crack corps of archers see Burton, (n. 64 above), 261–62; for the group with only a tuft of hair on top see Skertchly (n. 64 above), 455; Alpern (n. 64 above), 20. Newark's suggestion, Women Warlords (n. 63 above), 46, that the Amazons were not trained for close combat is contradicted by the literature on them; see for example, Cornevin (n. 63 above), 327 (quoting E. Chaudoin). There were five groupings in the Amazon corps: archers, elephant huntresses, bayoneteers, musketeers, and razor women; see Burton, (n. 64 above), 261–62. Most of the early accounts are reproduced in Herskovits, M. J., Dahomey: An Ancient West African Kingdom , 2 vols. (New York, 1938), vol. 2. The logical inconsistencies in these accounts deserve an extended analysis. In addition, the reported chant of the Amazons: “we are men, not women,” see Burton, (n. 64 above), 162; Skertchly (n. 64 above), 454; Topor (n. 64 above), 21, would require deconstruction, especially as it seems to have been “translated” for the benefit of the European (male) observers. Despite the name the latter gave them, the Dahomey “Amazons” did not mutilate themselves in order to be fit for war. Only once are “some of them” reported to have “cut off a breast” and that was as a token of their supreme despair when, early in 1893, they saw that they were about to lose the battle which completed the conquest of the kingdom by the French army; see Topor, (n. 64 above), 26.Google Scholar

66 Snelgrave, William, A New Account of Some Parts of Guinea (London, [1734] 1754), 136. Repr. in Herskovits, Dahomey, 2: 84–85.Google Scholar

67 The story is repeated in Stevens, Phillips Jr., The Stone Images of Esie , Nigerian Federal Department of Antiquities (Lagos, 1978), 68–69; Asiwaju, A. I. and Law, R., “From the Volta to the Niger 1600–1800,” in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, M., History of West Africa, 3^d ed. (London, 1985), 458; see also Cornevin, (n. 63 above), 124, where the transformation of female troops of the “ultimate reserve” into regular units arouses no comment. See also Alpern, (n. 64 above), 29–31.Google Scholar

68 Rattray, R. S., Ashanti (New York, [1923] repr. 1969), 80–84, the quotation is on 84; Poewe, K. O., Matrilineal Ideology: Male-Female Dynamics in Luapula, Zambia (London and New York, 1981), 26–27. The Ashanti queen mothers did not normally accompany the chiefs to war because of the taboos linked to menstruation. There were, however, four exceptions. But all four of them only went to war “because they were old and had passed the menopause”; see Rattray, , Ashanti, 81, n. 1. If menstruation was really a factor in keeping younger queen mothers from accompanying the army in traditional Ashanti society, it is obvious that it had never deterred thousands of young women from military service in Dahomey.Google Scholar

69 Serrano y Sanz, M., Noticias y Documentos Históricos de Ribagorza Hasta la Muerte de Sancho Garces III (Año 1035) (Madrid, 1912), 188.Google Scholar

70 Poewe, (n. 68 above), passim; Lebeuf (n. 62 above), passim.Google Scholar

71 Topor, (n. 64 above), 20.Google Scholar

72 For the Esie statues see Stevens, (n. 67 above), 65, 68 and plates 945–46. For the bronze statue in Benin see Noth (n. 58 above), plate 9; Jeffries, R., “The Image of Woman in African Cave Art,” in van Sertima, I., ed., Black Women in Antiquity (New Brunswick, 1988) repr. from Journal of African Civilizations 6 (1984): 113, fig 12. For the Ife sculptures see Noth, 159–60; Gillon, W., A Short History of African Art (London, [1984] 1986), 231.Google Scholar

73 Lange, D., “Les Rois de Gao-Sané et les Almoravides,” Journal of African History 32 (1991), 251–57; idem, “The Almoravids and the Islamization of the Great States of West Africa,” in Curiel, Raoul and Gyselen, Rika, eds., Itinéraires d'Orient: Hommages à Claude Cahen, Res Orientales, 6 (Bures-Sur-Yvette, 1994), 70–72; Cuoq, J. M., ed., Recueil des sources arabes concernant l'Afrique occidentale du viii^e au xvi^e siècle (Paris, 1985), 111–12. Nujeymah and her company could have learned their riding skills at home; Law, R., The Horse in West African History: The Role of the Horse in the Societies of Pre-Colonial West Africa (Oxford, 1980), 7–10. See also the figurine (now in Dakar) of a mounted Nago woman with two female attendants reproduced in Desanti, D., “La Femme dans les Sociétés d'Afrique Noire,” in Grimal, P., ed., Histoire Mondiale de la Femme (Paris, 1967), plate 7 (between 168–69).Google Scholar

74 Hiskett, (n. 60 above), 27–28; Clarke, P. B. (n. 60 above), 32–33.Google Scholar

75 For the Arabic text see Mohammad al-Idrisi, Abu-'Abdallah, Description de l'Afrique Septentriontale et Saharienne, texte arabe extrait du “Kitâb Nuzhat al Muchtâq fî Ikhtirâq al-Afâq” d'après l'edition de Leyde [1866] par Dozy, R. et de Goeje, M. J., Bibliothèque de l'Institut d'Études Supérieures Islamiques d'Alger, 10 (Algiers, 1957), 5 §4, 6 §5. Dozy and de Goeje, like Jaubert, suggested unconvincing emendations, which modern scholars have not adopted; see Abou-'Abdallah Moh. Edrissi, Description de l'Afrique et l'Éspagne, texte arabe publié pour la première fois par Dozy, R. et de Goeje, M. J. (Amsterdam, 1969; repr. of 1866 edition), 5; Jaubert, P.-A., La Géographie d'Edrissi (Amsterdam 1975; repr. of 1836–1840 edition), 13, 14. For transliterations of “sharki” see in Idrissi Geographia Nubiensis, id est Accuratissima Totius Orbis in Septem Climata divisi Descriptio , trans. Sionita, G. and Hesronita, I. (Paris, 1619), 9: “Arcus vero et sagittas necnon arcuum chordas conficiunt ex arundinibus sciarac”; Cuoq (n. 73 above), 131 (al-Idrisi); 204 (Ibn Said). On Takrur, see al-Nakar, U., “Takrur: the History of a Name,” Journal of African History 10 (1969): 365–74.Google Scholar

76 Dozy, , Supplément , 1: 752; I owe this point to Dr. Geoffrey Khan of The Geniza Research Unit in the Cambridge University Library.Google Scholar

77 Ferrand, Gabriel, “Le ‘Tuhfat Al-Adab’ de Abu Hamid al-Andalusi al-Garnati, edité d'après les MSS 2167, 2168, 2170 de la Bibliothèque Nationale et le MS. d'Alger,” Journal Asiatique (1925): 42; Cuoq (n. 73 above), 169. It is worth noting that in the nineteenth century, one observer spoke of “the peculiar Dahomey bow”; see Burton, (n. 64 above), 262. Al-Gharnati added that the Sudanese bow was used with short, poisoned arrows, which he had also seen.Google Scholar

78 Hoenerbach, W., Islamische Geschichte Spaniens: Übersetzung der A'mal al-A'lam und ergänzender Texte, Bibliothek des Morgenlandes (Zurich and Stuttgart, 1970), 216.Google Scholar

79 Lange, D., “The Almoravids and the Islamization of the Great States of West Africa,” in Curiel, Raoul and Gyselen, Rika, eds., Itinéraires d'Orient: Hommages à Claude Cahen, Res Orientales , 6 (Bures-Sur-Yvette, 1994), 71.Google Scholar

80 Harvey, (n. 6 above), 240.Google Scholar

81 Ribichini, S., “‘Athena’ Libica e le Parthenoi del Lago Tritonis (Her. IV, 180),” Studi Storico-Religiosi 2 (1978): 39–60.Google Scholar

82 For “tri” in Berber, , Beguinot, F., Il Berbero NefÛsi de Fassâto. Grammatica, testi raccolti dalla viva voce, vocabolarietti , 2^d ed. (Rome, 1942), 36; Basset, R., Études sur les dialectes Berbères (Paris, 1894), 9, 17. For “tatrit” (pl. titratin), see de Foucauld, Ch., Dictionnaire abregé Touareg-Français (Dialecte Ahaggar), 2 vols. (Alger, 1918–1920), 2, 667. For the “Moon Mother, priestess of the Dahomean Astarte,” see Skertchly, (n. 64 above), 261. The chief of all the women among the Katoko, near lake Chad, was associated with the Morning Star, “the mother of all the Stars” (Lebeuf [n. 62 above], 105). For the link between the ceremony recorded by Herodotus and the annual “battle” which took place at Ghat prior to 1954, see Paques, V., “Le Bélier cosmique: Son rôle dans les structures humains et territoriales du Fezzan,” Journal de la Société des Africainistes, 26 (1956): 233–34; Camps, G., “Pour une histoire naïve de Hérodote: Les Récits libyens (IV, 168–99),” Storia della Storiografia 7 (1985): 51–52. The subject requires a separate study.Google Scholar

83 Harvey, (n. 6 above), 240.Google Scholar

84 Al-Hulal (n. 60 above), 100.Google Scholar

85 The twice-repeated word “commo” clearly means here “as if” or “as it were” (see n. 5 above). This nuance was ignored by Harvey (n. 6 above), whose translation of the passage I have otherwise followed.Google Scholar

86 On the links between djihad, ribat, pilgrimage, penance, and crusade, see Lourie, E., “The Confraternity of Belchite, the Ribat and the Temple,” Viator 13 (1982): 159–76.Google Scholar

87 Lévi-Provençal, “La Toma” (n. 36 above), 112 (text), 133 (trans.); idem, “La prise” (n. 36 above), 208. It is worth noting that the fact that the narrative strongly implies that the women archers were under vows of, at least temporary, celibacy (they were not described as virgins) is yet another indication that a Christian narrator would not have invented the story. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the presence of women in crusading armies, in Christian sources, was always linked to licentious behavior; see Siberry, E., Criticism of Crusading 1095–1274 (Oxford, 1985), 44–46.Google Scholar

88 de Moraes, P. F., “Great States Revisited: A Review-article on N. Levtzion, Ancient Ghana and Mali” (London, 1973), in Journal of African History 15 (1974): 482; Conrad, and Fisher, (n. 60 above), esp. 43–45; Hiskett (n. 60 above), 26–33, 65; Trimingham (n. 36 above), 34–45.Google Scholar

89 Cuoq (n. 73 above), 197; Corpus (n. 53 above), 164–65.Google Scholar

90 Guichard, P., Structures sociales “Orientales” et “Occidentales” dans l'Espagne Musulmane (Paris, 1977), passim.Google Scholar

91 For Ibn Tumart's dossier, see Barbour, (n. 15 above), 117–30. 'Abdallah, ruler of Granada, who had been deposed in 1090, tactfully did not mention the Cid at all in his memoirs, since he was writing in an Almoravid prison ca. 1094/5. He merely noted that Valencia had yet to be recovered by the Almoravids, adding piously that he expected this to happen soon; see Buluggin, 'Abd Allah B., The Tibyan: Memoirs of 'Abd Allah B. Buluggin Last Zirid Amir of Granada , trans. Tibi, A. T., Medieval Iberian Peninsula, Texts and Studies, 5 (Leiden, 1986), 172, 270, n. 623. Valencia was permanently conquered by the Christians only in 1238.Google Scholar

92 It is noteworthy that Ben Yehuda, although convinced of the sexist attitudes in the Palmach and herself a victim of them, at first believed the story of the crying child and her colleague's “failure.” Moreover, although Ben Yehuda was soon told the truth privately, it was not made public until recently. Hence this false accusation played a part in the decision to prevent women from participating in front-line combat — a ban still effective in Israel, despite very recent legislation to remove it — see Yehuda, Ben (n. 32 above), 312–13. There were two other “reasons” for the ban: one was that the enemy mutilated corpses, and the mutilation of a woman's corpse was more shocking to men than the mutilation of a man's. The other reason was that allegedly it infuriated the enemy to find that they were opposed by women, inciting them to fight more fiercely; see ibid., 280. This latter argument already appears in Burton's discussion of the Dahomey Amazons: “nothing so outrageously insults manly pride … than to find that the warriors who oppose them (the adjoining nations) so stoutly are women”; see Burton, (n. 64 above), 264. But he fails to explain why the kings of Dahomey then persisted with so self-defeating a policy. Moreover Burton tells us (ibid., 254, 264) that king Gezo (d. 1858) “used to boast that he had organized the female army”; and Forbes (n. 64 above, 61–62) remarked that the king of Dahomey “is justly proud” of his female guards. It would seem, therefore, that in West Africa, men were not necessarily offended by having to fight armies that included female soldiers.Google Scholar

93 Even where women do not engage in combat, the high-status category of “warrior” is not necessarily gender specific in West Africa. “Grebo women are referred to as warriors in a variety of contexts, particularly those regarding suffering and danger, such as childbirth”; see Moran, Mary H., “Collective Action and the ‘Representation’ of African Women: a Liberian Case Study,” Feminist Studies 15 (1989): 454.Google Scholar