shield

The term shield comes from Hispanic Arabic addárqa, in turn derived from classical Arabic daraqah. A darga is called a shield shaped like an oval or heart that is made of leather.

The origins of the adargas must be sought in Al Andalus, when they were employed by the Muslims who made up the chivalry. With the passage of time, these shields began to be used also by the christians, both in the cavalry and in the infantry.

Remember that Al Andalus It is what the Muslims called the Iberian Peninsula. Depending on the author, we will find descriptions that more or less limit the meaning of this term in terms of the extension of territory it represented, and this range goes from the peninsula to parts of present-day France, Gibraltar and Andorra.

The origin of this shield was found on the African continent, more precisely in the north. This was due to the fact that the most important manufacturing center of the shield was in Fez, a city of Morocco of great relevance, considered the capital of Islam and located among the four named imperial, a group to which Rabat, Meknes and Marrakech also belong.

The shield provided an effective protection against attacks from arrows, spears Y swords. From century XVIWhen firearms began to be used, they began to lose their preponderance since they were not useful to defend against this type of offensive.

Anyway, the shields continued to serve due to the fact that the spears and swords continued to be valuable in combat until firearms attained greater speed of charge. Thanks to having a handle, it was easy to handle.

In this context, the creation of the bayonet, a weapon white that surpassed in popularity to the spear and the sword. Its main attraction was the possibility of attaching it to a firearm, which enhanced its usefulness and provided the opportunity to attack quickly and effectively in a melee encounter, when there was not enough time to reload the barrel or more were needed. blows to defeat the enemy.

The shield was widely used in the reed games, which have their origin in the ancient Arab armies and were practiced very frequently in Spain between the 16th and 18th centuries, in almost all of its current Plaza Mayor. In short, it was a combat simulation between the members of the same platoon, who had to divide into two groups, all mounted on horseback: some threw darts or spears at the opponents, who had to stop them with their shields.

It was also necessary for the game of run piggy banks, in which some horsemen threw piggy banks full of flowers or ash to the opponents, who had to try to stop them with their shields. While for the game of reeds, large shields of variable strength were used so that they would bend when resting on the body of the horse, in the game of piggy banks they were covered with fine wood so that they broke into pieces after impact.

We can find the concept of adarga in "Don Quijote of La Mancha", the most famous work of Miguel de Cervantes. At the beginning of book, Cervantes talk about a "gentleman" from "Old widget". However, when adapting the work to modern Castilian Spanish, in some versions it was decided to replace this expression by "Old shield".

Thus, it was sought to facilitate the understanding of the story to contemporary readers. However, there are those who warned that the change made it lose the original meaning, linked specifically to the shield whose frame was made up of folded skins that were sewn and glued.