The treasure that combines all arts
September 8, 2018 9:21 AM   Subscribe

Kitāb al-makhzūn jāmiʻ al-funūn or The treasure that combines all arts is a fifteenth-century illustrated treatise on the art of warfare from Mamluk Egypt. The Historical African Martial Arts Association (HAMAA) is promoting modern martial-arts analysis of the treatise.

You can page through a digitized version of the treatise at Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the French National Library, or download a PDF from the World Digital Library. There are flags, drills, and all sorts of illustrations of mounted and foot combat.

For historical European martial arts, the Wiktenauer site collects all sorts of information on medieval fighting treatises and their interpretations. There hasn't been as much analysis of Arabic manuscripts by modern martial-arts enthusiasts. But if you'd like to try a Mamluk knife drill, there's a demonstration on HAMAA's Youtube site (the knife starts moving around the one-minute mark).
posted by yarntheory (1 comment total) 21 users marked this as a favorite
 
I went to an event where Damon Stith taught. It was one of the best martial arts demos I ever went to. Great guy and super knowledgeable.
posted by garbhoch at 7:59 AM on September 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


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