@ick_of_pick

I entirely agree.
I have studied (in an informal way) medieval islamic military systems for most of my life and I find all of the points you make above to be both accurate and reasonable.

Games can be balanced in a multitude of ways.
We should prefer balancing mechanisms that maintain a high standard of scholarship over those that succumb to a 'fairy-tale' or 'hollywood' interpretation.

I cannot quite believe that these inaccuracies are not deliberately euro-centric in that they address a principally anglo-european market.