Re: (Semi OT) Article on Wargamers

> I don't know of any great victories but they were the favored army of
one
of the top players on
> the DBM list a few years ago, presumably he had a reason for picking
them.

I would guess the reason for picking them was more their table-top
performance than any historical achievements. In DBM, the link between
competition successes of an army and their historical performance is
pretty
weak (as, I suspect, is the case for most ancient/medieval wargames
rules).

> The Fatimids (990 or so)--conquered Egypt and held it until Saladin; I
> don't know that the Fatimid army counts as "great" but at least it was
> successful at one point.  That's the most recent example of a
> successful Arab army that occurs to me.

Other Moslem, rather than Arab, successes:
The various Afghan wars
WWI.: Gallipoli and repulsing the British expedition to Bagdad

For Arab successes, the Saudi conquest of Arabia (1920's) and the
guerilla
war against the Turks in WWI (known through Lawrence of Arabia) could be
cited.

Greetings