Picture of author.

David Nicolle

Author of Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon wars

190+ Works 7,208 Members 128 Reviews 1 Favorited

About the Author

David Nicolle is a leading expert on the history of medieval warfare, in particular the Crusades and Middle Eastern warfare, and he is a prolific writer of books on these subjects as well as journal and magazine articles. Among his many previous works are The Hundred Years War; The Mongol Warlords; show more Saladin and the Saracens; The Crusades; The Medieval Warfare Sourcebook; Hattin 1187 and Fighting for the Faith (Pen Sword, 2007). show less

Series

Works by David Nicolle

The Normans (Elite) (1987) 149 copies
The Crusades (1901) 133 copies
Saladin and the Saracens (1986) 128 copies
The Age of Charlemagne (1984) 111 copies
Constantinople 1453 (2000) 104 copies
Attila and the Nomad Hordes (1990) 101 copies
Mongol Warlords (1990) 88 copies
The Scandinavian Baltic Crusades 1100-1500 (2007) — Author — 84 copies
The Age of Tamerlane (1990) 83 copies
The Janissaries (1862) 75 copies
The Mamluks 1250-1517 (1993) 70 copies
The Ottoman Army 1914-18 (1994) 61 copies
Mughul India 1504-1761 (1993) 59 copies
Armies of Ivan the Terrible (2006) 52 copies
Saladin (Command) (2008) 33 copies
Mamluk 'Askari, 1250–1517 (2014) 27 copies
A Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour (2002) — Editor — 23 copies
Tannenberg 1410 : Tyska ordens största nederlag (2010) — Author — 6 copies
La toma de Granada (2011) 4 copies
Les Chevaliers (1997) 4 copies
La batalla sobre el hielo (2011) 4 copies
Las fortalezas del Islam (2011) 3 copies
Istanbul'un Fethi 1453 (2018) 2 copies
Nigbolu 1396 (2014) 2 copies
First Time Crew (1990) 2 copies
I Normanni (1998) 2 copies
La Primera Cruzada (2011) 2 copies
La heroína de Orleans (2011) 2 copies
Jalahing 1242 (2009) 1 copy
Islamische Waffen (1981) 1 copy
Selahaddin Eyyubi (2021) 1 copy
Le crociate 1 copy
Middelalderens riddere (2002) 1 copy

Associated Works

La caída de Jerusalén (1187) — Contributor — 2 copies
Nine Lives [2002 Film] (2002) — Actor — 1 copy

Tagged

black (54) Byzantium (41) campaign (45) Crusades (373) Dark Ages (39) Europe (45) European History (56) France (75) General (47) history (969) Hundred Years War (49) Islam (111) Italy (49) JCR Mil History (47) MAA (57) medieval (605) medieval history (275) Medieval Warfare (81) Middle Ages (152) Middle East (113) military (380) military history (709) non-fiction (250) Osprey (652) Osprey Men at Arms (126) Osprey Men at Arms Series (43) osprey military (41) Ottoman (42) Ottoman Empire (42) PDF (51) red (54) reference (43) Russia (46) SB (48) TCE (54) to-read (111) Uniforms (58) war (113) warfare (152) WWI (66)

Common Knowledge

Legal name
Nicolle, David Charles
Birthdate
1944-04-04
Gender
male
Nationality
UK

Members

Reviews

This is a rather mixed bag of a book. Due to the fact that I cannot find many books on the subject - military organization of elite units within Ottoman Empire - I am giving it 4 stars but in truth it is more like 3 1/2 stars.

Reason is very simple - for reasons I do not comprehend - Ottoman Empire get constantly represented as so advanced, varied and multinational state where everything was flourishing, everybody had equal rights and was so advanced that even levy-in-flesh (main source of Janissary's recruits) is seen as some sort of study-and-work-abroad program organized for the people of the conquered countries.

I will not go into inner workings of Ottoman Empire - but come on. They were a world power at the time. They had manpower, industrial strength and resources to start their own expansion on both East and West frontiers. They were good fighters and they had the military might. In other words they were powerful state of the time - with their expansionist politics and trigger-happiness not different than any other country/empire/kingdom/duchy of the period. To say that they get supporters in countries that they occupied is ridiculous - you think those people supported them because they believed they will be enlightened by the Ottomans? They allied themselves with them for simple reasons - either because they wanted to gain upper hand in their own country by joining with mighty conqueror or because they wanted to keep their riches by making friends with new power in the area that cannot be contended (yet). Again nothing that did not take place million times in the past through-out the Europe and world, so I always get surprised when I read something like this from respected historians. and to call counter attacks from opposing super-powers at the time as savage and aggressive - again what are we talking about here? Who came where first? In that case we can go way back and get lost because there is no piece of land that wasn't contended at some point in time.

This aside it is interesting work. If you are interested in the period I recommend it.
… (more)
 
Flagged
Zare | 1 other review | Jan 23, 2024 |
A lot of good information, but the narrative was very wordy and seemed to get buried in the minutiae of the subject.
 
Flagged
alrajul | Jun 1, 2023 |
The best part of the book is the many drawings of reliefs and artefacts showing Sassanid (or Sassanid-era) soldiers and gear.

I also liked the plates with reconstructions of what Sassanid armies may have looked like in real life. I was less impressed with the main text, partly because while every illustration has an accompanying text identifying what it's based on, the main text provides hardly any indication what the various assertions are based on.

Also, Nicolle seems to have something of an anti-Roman bias, being determined to deny or minimize any Greco-Roman influence on Sassanid Iran, while being perfectly happy to acknowledge two-way influence across the empire's other borders.… (more)
 
Flagged
AndreasJ | Mar 28, 2023 |
 
Flagged
Mustygusher | Feb 20, 2023 |

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Ian Heath Author
Angus McBride Illustrator
Richard Hook Illustrator
Adam Hook Illustrator
Samuel Embleton Illustrator
Gerry Embleton Illustrator
Ulf Irheden Translator
Anne Pedersen Contributor
Alan Williams Contributor
Shihab al-Sarraf Contributor
Michael Gorelik Contributor
Andrea Babuin Contributor
John Haldon Contributor
Marco Morin Contributor
Claude Gaier Contributor
Tim Dawson Contributor
Jon Coulston Contributor
Ewart Oakeshott Contributor
Helmut Nickel Contributor
Leo Nomis Foreword
Christa Hook Illustrator
Graham Turner Illustrator
Raffaele Ruggeri Illustrator
Mikael Dahlgren Translator

Statistics

Works
190
Also by
4
Members
7,208
Popularity
#3,396
Rating
½ 3.5
Reviews
128
ISBNs
295
Languages
13
Favorited
1

Charts & Graphs