Looking for primary sources

[Macedon]

I have been trying for many years now to make a collection of any ancient and medieval texts on warfare, as I guess many of us have done and do. Of course I have studied most Graecoroman texts, a lot of medieval European texts, even some later manuals especially on cavalry tactics. Of course, apart from manuals, descriptions of battles in any sort of literature are also very informative. What I am looking for is more non-European sources. I am sure there are a lot of relevant Muslim texts but I only have a handful of them, very few Indian texts and some Chinese and Korean. It seems that very few informative texts have been written or survived in the east. Any ideas?

[Macedon]

No ideas? Anyone?

[Dan Howard]

Khorasani has an upcoming book that surveys a lot of the Persian/Iranian sources on this subject.

[Brent Nielsen]

John Keegan's 'Face of Battle' comes to mind as does Barbara Tuchman's 'Through a distant Mirror' she has some excellent sources for her discussions of the battles of the 100 years was and hte battle of Nicopolis. I have a reference for that period but I can't remember the name and I am not at home, but I can look it up for ya. Never got your questions...

[Vindex]

The fire in the library at Alexandria has a lot to answer for...

[Simplex]

Hi ...
....maybe this link can help a little bit:
http://www.humanities.uci.edu/sasanika/
Greez

Simplex

[dark41]

I have been trying for many years now to make a collection of any ancient and medieval texts on warfare, as I guess many of us have done and do. Of course I have studied most Graecoroman texts, a lot of medieval European texts, even some later manuals especially on cavalry tactics. Of course, apart from manuals, descriptions of battles in any sort of literature are also very informative. What I am looking for is more non-European sources. I am sure there are a lot of relevant Muslim texts but I only have a handful of them, very few Indian texts and some Chinese and Korean. It seems that very few informative texts have been written or survived in the east. Any ideas?

The obvious problem is that we don't know how much does not survive. You might also want to connect online with the ASOR (American School of Oriental Research) and BSOR (British School of Oriental Research). Those might be a good jumping off project. In Tunisia there was also a major joint (textual/literature) project between Local, and Am, and UK researchers - but I do not remember the name, most of the information was only available in French or Arabic though. There are some Archaeology projects there, run by one of the faculty at Oxford - Josephine Crawley, on her faculty page it links to those projects if I remember correctly. She has been focusing on Carthage, but it seems that was only a piece of this larger project in Tunisia. If all else fails, find someone working on the area and send them an email. Most people are quite happy to help point you in the right direction.