Chocim 1621 and Turkish 'copia'*

Salve,

a couple days ago my  dear friend and 'early hussars' scholar Samuel made a comment about the lances with 'galka' (knob. Apple, 'pomme') so in response to his comment I am showing a fragment of 1657-9 painting done for Swedish ambassador Claes Ralamb by hmm..., there is no agreement amongst the authorities as to the authorship, perhaps by a Polish dragoman and convert to Islam who was associated with Ralamb and perhaps procured or even drew the famous Ralamb Costume Book, while the ambassador was in Istanbul on a mission for his king Charles X Gustav of Sweden. The collections consist of 20 paintings now in Sweden.

These are spahis/sipahi of the Sultan bodyguard unit.   I had the entire Ralamb book on my computer but sadly I lost it when my Windows XP had got infected (and I use only Linux and Mac now).

And here a sample of a bit earlier, 50 yers,  Turkish lancer with knobed(with 'galka')  'copia'  drawn and etched by German artist Zimmerman circa 1605 - courtesy of Samuel.

 Pan Jakub Sobieski, who was one of the commissaries sent by the Polish Seym (Diet) to observe and assist the  Polish commanders during the Polish-Turkish struggle at Chocim (Khotyn), left a description of the Turkish cavalry as he saw them at the beginning of the battle. - battle described in English here radoslawsikora.republika.pl/materialy/Chocim1621/Chocim1621.pdf
Amongst others he stated:

[Ottoman] cavalry gave wonderful show with their fine clothing and beauty of their argamaks (war stallions  - I am writing a little entry on this ancient  horse, perhaps during this coming week), and with banners or pennons with glittering  knobs. Their steeds, brought from much pleasant climate and used by the long trip they had made, were much less brave and sound than we expected.

Asiatic non-warlike host, made but numbers; with long beards and not because of their war deed they demanded attention, and they were terrifying because of their screams and not due to their bravery; they were ready to run,  unable to withstand camplife, used to riches but not the war itself, they did not carry much promise for war....

Turkish European armies justly could call themselves the defence and adornment of this campaign. Veterans trained in the Hungarian wars, and their bodies, spirit and even clothing were unlike the other Turks, they retained the traces of old Christian settlers [Balkan?]. Lancers [with 'copia/kopia'] stood in their first ranks, and we saw typical weapons that Turks commonly use: bow, curved sabres, curved iron hooks[sic!], 'rohatyna' spears [shorter lances or 'dzida' 1,7-3 meters long] and more often the short iron spears [jarid or djarid – Turkish javelin], which they assault enemy with by throwing...

Polish word 'oszczep' denotes a type of a shorter lighter spear-like weapon with a small leaf- or lance-shaped head. Oszczep was used usually by throwing or casting it against the enemy or prey (hunting), hence I think it is translatable into English as 'Javelin', which is a light spear used for throwing, either on foot or form horseback, eg ancient 'palta' was carried in pair, one was used as javelin and second as a thrusting light spear from horseback, such use we see by the ancient Iranian cavalry and later by the Greeks and Macedonians etc.

In Polish we also have a name for a very short javelin of a Turkish kind described above – 'dzirit' which is a borrowing form the Turkish language.

* I used Latin word 'copia' for lance, in a meaning used by the Polish writers in XV-XVII centuries.