Today's post is once again one of my long hidden gems, dusted and photographed just to appear here for your viewing pleasure!! he he!
This unit of Nubian Spearmen was painted many moons ago and like the Black Guard in my previous post, have only made one miserable appearance on a wargaming table, which is such a shame, because in my opinion they look quite good, but I'm biased of course, as I painted most of them. Around ten of these figures were part of my bring and buy bargin at a Birmingham wargame show around 12 years ago. The figures are all from the excellent Gripping beast range. They are based on a picture in the Osprey book,  "The Armies of Islam 7th-10th century Men-at-arms No125. These and others make up my Moor army to oppose the infamous Charltono Hestona  El Cid.
Hope you like them!!!

Ray

Now these, (I'm sure the other Rejects will confirm),  haven't been out of their box for some time, infact I've only ever had one game with them and that was many moons ago.  As the title suggests these fine looking fellows belong to Yusef Ibn Tashfin , better known to us today as Ben Yusef.
Ben Yusef was the second ruler of the Murabitun Empire, better known as The Almoravids in Spain, who were the first Saharan Islamic religious movement to establish a large state, which expanded northwards to include half of the Iberian peninsula. The first Muribat ruler Abdalluh Ibn Yasin re-introduced the old military system of tribal drum groups and many other peoples joined the empire, including large numbers of black Africans recruited as slaves, ex prisoners and many Andalusians.
Ben Yusef  created a Hasham Guard of some 2,000 African Infantry also known as The Black Guard, on his way to conquer Andulas, with the eventual defeat of  El Cid at Valencia in 1099.

The figures are by Gripping Beast, I bought some of these figures painted, along with some other El Cid and the Reconquista  figures that I'll post at a later date at a wargame show in Birmingham around 12 years ago, (I think!!), so I had to paint the rest to match in and have got to be the easiest figures I've ever painted, spay black and drybrush grey, with a little colour here and there.        
So there we have it Ben Yusef's Black Guard.

Ray