Arming the Two Koreas: State, Capital and Military Power (Politics in Asia Series)

North Korea has traditionally been seen as militarily superior to South Korea in the long feud between the two nations. This brilliantly argued book taps into a great deal of news interest in North Korea at the moment in the wake of recent hostility against Japan. Hamm controversially shows that the received idea of Koreas military strength is partly a myth created by South Korea to justify a huge programme of rearmament. Book Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 5 List of maps......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 10 List of abbreviations......Page 11 A note on the use of Arabic sources......Page 12 Maps......Page 18 The conquests and after: Muslim armies, 11 64/632 83......Page 22 The armies of the Marwanid period, 64 132/683 750: recruitment, leadership and tactics......Page 39 The payment of the military in the early Islamic state......Page 80 Early 'Abbasid warfare, 132 218/750 833......Page 117 The armies of Samarra, 218 56/833 70......Page 139 The last armies of the Caliphs, 256 324/870 936......Page 169 Weapons and equipment in early Muslim armies......Page 189 Fortification and siege warfare......Page 204 Postscript......Page 216 The origins of the shakiriya......Page 220 Numbers of the 'Abbasid army in Samarra......Page 226 Glossary......Page 230 Bibliography......Page 232 Index......Page 242