JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES

October-December 2009 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume I., Issue 4.
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Those who made them, as Maenchen-Helfen also said, had to be professionals. These would therefore
not fall under the “fit and adult male” category mentioned by Keegan.
In fact, it is precisely this idea that in a nomad society, all the men were herdsmen and all of them
were warriors that is a recurring, serious error in Western histories about them. Two examples of
foundries should suffice to underline this point:
A late 9 th or early 10 th century Magyar iron-working find is described by János Gömöri 16 in Nemeskér,
western Hungary, and an Avar one at Tarjánpuszta 17 , also in Western Hungary. Both show long use and
produced large amounts of iron, recovered locally. Gömöri says the 10 th century Magyars produced
some 20 tons of iron, an amount that needed large numbers of men to find, smelt, and forge the iron ore
into weapons or tools.
Obviously, if the Magyars of the 9 th /10 th centuries had ironsmiths, and the Avars in the 7 th century also
had them, it would be difficult to imagine the Huns, the early Türks, who, according to Barfield: ”Were
subjects of the Jou-jan (Rouran) and renowned for their skill in ironworking”, 18 somehow lacking
ironsmiths or foundries.
While some specialist craftsmen might not have been fit for combat, as in the legend of the ”lame
smith”, the existence of such large amounts of iron show that many expert craftsmen could not have
been warriors. It must therefore be clear that not all the ”fit and adult males” fought in nomad armies.
Considering the possibilities of how many men can organise themselves into a raiding party, a group
of bandits or even an army, the basic necessity of leadership is clear. Without any leadership there would
merely be a mob, which could break up and scatter as the slightest problem arose.
Another aspect that shows the existence of an officer corps was what is called “command and
control.” The leaders of a large group of men have to somehow inform the rank and file of their
intentions. Nowhere is this more crucial than on the battlefield. The commander, or lesser leaders, have
to have some means of giving orders to their men so these can begin harassing archery fire; feigned
retreat; encirclement; or attacks or counterattacks against the enemy. All these manoeuvres are well
documented among nomad forces.
But a group of even 100 horsemen cannot advance, release arrows in arcade 19 , wheel, fire off aimed
shots, return to their own lines and repeat the manoeuvre and at the right moment, charge the enemy
without commands. It can be imagined what would happen if, without some form of command or
signal, the 40 riders wheeled to the right, while 60 turned to the left!
Precisely how much thought has gone into the concept of the disorganised “nomad horde”, without
officers, without commands or some organisation, is hard to guess, but it seems, not much.
And if 100 horsemen needed control, how much more would a Mongol “tuman”, or Magyar “tömén”
of 10,000 men require it! It should go without saying that if command and control methods existed and if
16 Lovasnépek vaskohászata Pannoniában. IN: Az Őshazától A Kárpátokig. Panoráma. Budapest, 1985. p.335.
17 p.340
18 Barfield, P. 132
19 Normally nomads shot arrows in dense clouds at a steep angle, without aiming carefully. See Hildinger p.27 and others.
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