Ghaznavid War Elephants
The Ghaznavids used armored war elephants against the Turks of Central Asia and the Hindus of India in the 11th and 12th centuries. Islamic historians record that a standing force of 1000 elephants was maintained at Ghazni (also: Ghazna), the capital, and that as many as 400, 500, or even 700 elephants were deployed in some campaigns by the famed (and ferocious) Mahmud; purportedly, each animal had a crew of four archers and/or spearmen borne in "castle-like" structures on the elephants' backs.
Read more about this topic: Persian War Elephants
Famous quotes containing the words war and/or elephants:
“Combativeness was, I suppose, the dominant trait in my grandmother’s nature. An aggressive churchgoer, she was quite without Christian feeling; the mercy of the Lord Jesus had never entered her heart. Her piety was an act of war against Protestant ascendancy. ...The teachings of the Church did not interest her, except as they were a rebuke to others ...”
—Mary McCarthy (1912–1989)
“Be wary of passing the judgment: obscure. To find something obscure poses no difficulty: elephants and poodles find many things obscure.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)