In that article they mention: Al Furusiya
For those not familiar with it, Al Furusiya is a Mamluk (warrior slaves of primarily Egypt who ultimately became the leaders the Muslim Empire) manual on martial arts written in 1348 by Muhammad ibn Is ibn Isma’il ibn al Aqsara in Damascus, recorded by the scribe Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Ahmad al-Misri, which covers horsemanship, archery, use of the lance, swordsmanship, mace, the arts of soldiers and cavalrymen, conscription, assembling of troops, arrangements of battle lines, military strategy, and divisions of spoils, along with 18 colored paintings and 25 diagrams. It can be downloaded from here: https://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100000000044.0x0003ca According to the HAMAS Association article: “Stick fighting as a way of mediating training for swordsmanship in North Africa, though may have existed before, seems to have also been influenced by the Mamluk tradition. As shown in various Mamluk treatises, stick fighting was a way of getting students used to the mechanics of handling a sword. This would provide a training that geared Mamluk’s to become skilled in straight and later, by the 13th Century, curved swords (though curved blades existed as early as the 9th Century in Egypt).” And: Finally, various forms of living traditions in the Maghreb exist such as Algerian stick fighting, Al Matreg, which was used to teach sword-play to young boys. https://hamaassociation.wordpress.com/2018/04/15/sword-fighting-in-the-maghreb-900-1900/#_ftn12 To that I might add stick fighting would be great training for sword and lance fighting. (See figures 1 - 5) No doubt stick fighting arts are extremely old in Africa. Detailed Egyptian stick fighting techniques are described Ramesseum Papyrus (circa 1991 B.C.) specifically by the stick-fighting priests of Osiris. (See for example: Fighting for Honor: The History of African Martial Art Tradition in the Atlantic World, by M. Thomas J. Desch-Obi) |