Paygan
Paygan | |
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Active | 224-644 |
Allegiance | Muslim conquest of Iran |
Military of the Sasanian Empire |
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Armed forces and units |
Ranks |
Defense lines |
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Conflicts |
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The Paygān (also known as Paighan) were the conscript
During peacetime, the corps could have had police force roles.[1]
Recruitment
The Paygan were a
According to Arab historians, during the
Weapons
The Paygan were lightly armed with short light wood or wickerwork shields, boiled leather cap and short spears. Some of the Paygan would have, however, had to equip themselves with their own weapons. These tended to be agricultural equipment such as
Belisarius' remarks on Sassanian infantry forces:[5]
Right for you to despise them. For their whole infantry is nothing more than a crowd of pitiable peasants who come into battle for no other purpose than to dig through walls ... and in general to serve the soldiers. For this reason they have no weapons at all with which they might trouble their opponents, and they only hold before themselves those enormous shields and huge elephants.
Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum, 19.7.3 remarks on Sasanian troops:
"And day was now dawning, when mail-clad soldiers underspread the entire heaven, and the dense forces moved forward, not as before in disorder, but led by the [p. 505] slow notes of the trumpets and with no one running forward, protected too by pent-houses and holding before them wicker hurdles."
The professional Sasanian infantry and the peasant levies are often confused as a single force in Roman sources. Paygan's registration on the state's rolls suggest that they were a paid, professional force.[8]
See also
- Spahbed
- Byzantine army
- Late Roman army
- Roman-Persian Wars* Persian war elephants
- Cataphract
- Aswaran
References
- ISBN 978-83-62447-22-0.
- ISBN 9781846038907.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84176-713-0.
- ISBN 978-0-7734-4779-0.
- ^ ISBN 9780195342352.
- ^ Wilcox, Peter (1986). Rome's Enemies: Parthians and Sassanid Persians (Men-at-Arms). Vol. 3. Osprey Publishing.
- ISBN 978-1-84603-336-0.
- ISBN 978-83-7051-887-5.