مسالك الابصار في ممالك الامصار 2.111

2.111

Al-Shiblī said: His fief is the size of a large province such as Iraq. As for the arrangement of the kings of this kingdom in battle positions: the Sultan stands in the centre, with the imams and scholars around him and the archers before and behind him; the right and left wings extend, joined to the flanks; before him are the elephants clad in iron armour, bearing towers nailed onto them in which are the fighters, as we said earlier; in the towers are openings for shooting arrows and for throwing flasks of naphtha. In front of the elephants are the slave foot-soldiers, lightly clad, with swords and weapons, clearing room for the elephants and engaging the horses with swords, while the archers in the towers cover them from above and behind. The cavalry on the right and left close the edges of the ground upon the enemy and fight around and behind the elephants, so that the fleeing man finds no escape and no way in; hardly anyone survives before them, because of the armies encircling them, the arrows and naphtha falling from above them, and the foot-soldiers striking at them stealthily from below; death comes to them from every place, and calamity surrounds them on every side.