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Hmmm. Well as one may or may not know in the Middle East the armies from the time of the Byzantines and Sassanids up to the 19th and 20th a century was dominated largely by making use of irregular cavalry 'lured' from various Arab, Turkic, and Mongolian tribes that passed into the area ontop of each other. The Buyid Dynasty in Iran was in origin Deylamite/Delimite from the mountainous southern coast of the Caspian Sea and were primarily foot soldiers and they were quite successful at first in capturing most of Iran and were on their way to establishing an Iranian Dynasty. What they had against them though was their lack of training as cavalry so like many others they were forced to recruit Turkish cavalry which predictably eventually created internal strife which resulted in their defeat by the Abbasaids. Thus a patter was constantly continued where Nomadic Tribes focused on cavalry were able to put a stranglehold on the sedentary populations of the whole Middle East.

Barring Gunpowder, what can be developed that would allow for Infantry oriented armies to be able to out do horse archer and cavalry oriented armies of this region and time period?
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