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Medieval spear and javelin points
The history of Gibraltar has been full of sieges and wars since it was first settled. For this reason, it is not unusual to find artefacts of a military nature from any of the periods in our history – from fragments of 20th-century shells and bullets to close combat weapons from the Middle Ages.
Today we bring you a spear point (Arabic: ‘harba’) and javelin point (Arabic: ‘mizra’). These were made from iron and would have been attached to a wooden shaft. They were among the weapons most often used by Muslim soldiers. The javelin was usually short, and was intended as a throwing weapon. The spear was described by Arab authors as a long and light lance, which was used by both the cavalry and infantry.
Ibn al-Khatib (1313-1374), in his “History of the Kings of the Alhambra”, describes how Muhammad IV was ambushed as he returned to Granada from Gibraltar with one of the assailants stepping forward and impaling him with a spear. The sultan died instantly.
Although we have no precise dates for these artefacts they are most likely to come from the Marinid or Nasrid periods of Gibraltar’s history (1333-1462 CE).
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