Askari Miniatures is excited to release four sets of mounted Moroccan Berbers. The Algerian rebel Abd el Kader rides again!
The Berbers of Morocco and Algeria were noted horsemen, fighting the colonizing French for a century from the 1830s in Algeria to their final pacification of Moroccan tribes in the Atlas Mountains in the 1930s.
The word razzia is from the Algerian Arabic word ghaziya غزية which means “raiding.” A razzia as a raid by a Berber tribe on another tribe or against the French. The French borrowed the term and engaged in their own razzias against the Berbers.
Mounted Moroccan Berber Cavalry sets include BC-1, Charging with muskets, BC-2, Charging with swords, BC-3, Leaders, and BC-4, Moroccan Scout. The horsemen are mounted on our Moroccan Barb horses. The Leaders and Scout sets feature a new, rearing horse.
You can mix-and-match these riders with the Algerian Spahis of the French Colonial figures (FRC-5,6), as the spahis wore traditional Algerian dress.
Even today Moroccan horsemen participate in festivals called fantasia that feature wild charges firing their ornate muskets. They and their horses are dressed today in traditional costume just as when they engaged the Foreign Legion.
