My thanks to the Unknown Guy for information about Muslim standing armies and the use of mercinaries. Unfortunately the "Mercinaries and what you can do with them" thread took a different turn before I could ask follow up questions. So I am posting here.

As pointed out in the "Mercinaries ... etc." thread, the Byzantines used mercinaries as part of their standing army, and the game represents this by allowing the Byzantine player to raise Varangians and Bulgarian brigands as regular units instead of hiring them at an inn. After all, as Martok pointed out, they were part of the regular army for practical purposes.

Then the Unknown Guy told me that the Fatimids used lots of mercs in their standing army too. So can anyone satisfy my curiosity and tell me which regular Egyptian units (if any) represent those mercs. I really should do my own research, I guess, but if anyone happens to know anyway it would save me a lot of time.

Also, did the Almoads have a standing army with a significant number of mercinaries? If so, which units would represent them?